The Black Fives : The Epic Story of Basketball's Forgotten Era

The Black Fives isa groundbreaking, timely history of the largely unknown early days of Black basketball, bringing to life the trailblazing players, teams, and impresarios who pioneered the sport. “For a game that has meant so much to the world, Claude Johnson somehow presents a definitive account for a part of basketball’s history that for so long was kept away from us.Claude is a superhero storyteller, and this book is a bona fide superpower.” -Justin Tinsley, author of It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him From the introduction of the game of basketball to Black communities on a wide scale in 1904 to the racial integration of the NBA in 1950, dozens of African American teams were founded and flourished.This period, known as the Black Fives Era (teams at the time were often called “fives”), was a time of pioneering players and managers.They battled discrimination and marginalization and created culturally rich, socially meaningful events.But despite headline-making r