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Title details for The Black Fives by Claude Johnson - Available

The Black Fives

The Epic Story of Basketball's Forgotten Era

by Claude Johnson
ebook
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The Black Fives is a 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 rivalries between big-city clubs, barnstorming tours across the country, innovative business models, and undeniably talented players, this period is almost entirely unknown to basketball fans.

Claude Johnson has made it his mission to change that. An advocate fiercely committed to our history, for more than two decades Johnson has conducted interviews, mined archives, collected artifacts, and helped to preserve this historically important African American experience that otherwise would have been lost. This essential book is the result of his work, a landmark narrative history that braids together the stories of these forgotten pioneers and rewrites our understanding of the story of basketball.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 24, 2022

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781683359081

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781683359081
      • File size: 19024 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from May 1, 2022

      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

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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