L. Augustus Paige, known to his friends as "Miles," was Band Director at Second Ward High School in Charlotte, NC. Mr. Paige
served as President of the NC Band and Orchestra Association in 1957.

Oral History Interview with Arthur Griffin, May 7, 1999. Interview K-0168. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"But I got involved. I mean, I was in the band, when I was in the seventh grade or the eighth grade. There was a white guy who runs a musical instrument company, and he’s like the son or grandson of
Mr. Howren [spells it out]–it was Howren Music Company, on East 6th Street. Right across from the old public library, [ ] you’d go up these old crickety steps. And my dad was buying me a cornet, which is sort of like a trumpet. And he paid so much a week, two dollars a week, three dollars a week or something like that. I bought that in seventh grade. And I played in the band at Second Ward, from seventh grade until about the eleventh grade. I don’t know what happened. We had a new band director, for one thing.

L. Augustus Paige was the band director for a hundred years, and then Mr. Cooper came over, and I
guess I didn’t–we didn’t get along too well or something. So after all those years in the band, I think I
left the band in eleventh grade. But being in a band, you know, you had your band members that you
were friends with, you’d hang out with, you’d go around with."