The Black fives The epic story of basketball's forgotten era

Claude Johnson, 1960-

Book - 2022

"African Americans were making moves in basketball generations before the rise of the NBA. Their pioneering efforts helped popularize the sport in big cities and small towns alike and shaped the game we know and love today. From the invention of the game in 1891 to the racial integration of all-White professional leagues int he 1950s, dozens of teams -- then often called "fives" -- of African American players were founded and flourished. This was a time of visionary players, managers, and impresarios who blazed a trail, battled discrimination and marginalization, and created rich, meaningful events that strengthened their communities in the face of Jim Crow oppression. But this era, known as the Black Fives Era, has been forg...otten, overlooked, unacknowledged, and squashed. It is barely known today. For more than two decades, Claude Johnson has made it his mission to change that. A fiercely committed advocate, Johnson has researched, preserved, exhibited, taught, and honored this important African American experience, unearthing what might have remained buried in an unmarked grave. [This book] is the result of his work, a landmark narrative history that braids together the stories of these pioneers and rewrites our understanding of the true history of the game." -- Book jacket flap.

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2nd Floor 796.323/Johnson Due Apr 9, 2024
Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York : Abrams Press [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Claude Johnson, 1960- (author)
Item Description
Title page verso indicates publication date as "2021," publisher's website states publication date as "May 24, 2022."
Physical Description
470 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (page 429-470).
ISBN
9781419744365
  • Chapter 1. An unmarked grave
  • Chapter 2. Survival
  • Chapter 3. Seeds
  • Chapter 4. Pittsburgh pedigree
  • Chapter 5. Rites of passage
  • Chapter 6. Satan's circus
  • Chapter 7. 1901
  • Chapter 8. Physical culture
  • Chapter 9. St. Christopher
  • Chapter 10. Great struggle for victory
  • Chapter 11. A real corker
  • Chapter 12. As our white friends play it
  • Chapter 13. Wabash outlaws
  • Chapter 14. Sport for sport's sake
  • Chapter 15. A Janitor's key
  • Chapter 16. Virgil
  • Chapter 17. Maddening
  • Chapter 18. Supreme courts
  • Chapter 19. Loendi
  • Chapter 20. Outlaws
  • Chapter 21. Democracy lads
  • Chapter 22. The future of basketball
  • Chapter 23. Out-and-outers
  • Chapter 24. The New Negro
  • Chapter 25. Chicago crusaders
  • Chapter 26. "True world champions"
  • Chapter 27. World series of basketball
  • Chapter 28. The missing NBA team
  • Chapter 29. Vindication
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
Review by Library Journal Review

Historian Johnson (founder of the Black Fives Foundation) presents a treasure trove of information that dramatically reshapes American basketball history, detailing the invaluable role of Black Americans in shaping the game and contemporary basketball culture. "Black Fives" was an early term for all-Black basketball teams, whose history Johnson has spent 20 years researching and preserving. His interviews and archival documents are beautifully framed around stories of innovators of the game, providing a comprehensive historical context of the painful discrimination faced by Black Americans in the early 1900s and often today. Johnson's narrative spans from the creation of the sport by James Naismith in 1891 through the beginnings of the National Basketball Association in 1946. VERDICT Highly readable, this work should not be missed. Essential and highly recommended for all libraries.--Steve Dixon

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