The Black Fives
The Epic Story of Basketball’s Forgotten Era
by Claude Johnson
Narrated by Claude Johnson
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Pub Date May 24 2022 | Archive Date Jun 03 2022
RB Media | Recorded Books
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Description
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 in the 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 forgotten, 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. The Black Fives 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.
Advance Praise
"Claude Johnson has written a wonderful and thorough history of African Americans in basketball, providing exhaustive historical context and enlightening anecdotes. The Black Fives is outstanding and unprecedented. Bravo!" ―Kadir Nelson
"It was an honor to have Claude speak to the Thunder organization, introducing our players and staff to the incredible history and persistence of the Black Fives. As their foremost historian, Claude's passion and rigor for the story of these people and teams are inspiring. Listening and learning from Claude's research and expertise is an important step in continuing to appreciate the legacy of these pioneers of the sport that brings to many people together." ―Sam Presti, executive vice president and general manager, Oklahoma City Thunder
"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
"Claude Johnson has done almost as much to retrieve a missing era in our history––that of the Black Fives––as all the writers, filmmakers, and scholars working on the Negro Leagues combined were able to accomplish in telling Black baseball's story. The Black Fives is a deftly crafted, prodigiously researched, and groundbreaking book that shows not only why Black basketball mattered during the sport's segregated past, but what it matters today." ―Rob Ruck, professor or sport history, University of Pittsburgh, and author of Tropic of Football: The Long and Perilous Journey of Samoans to the NFL
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format, Unabridged |
| ISBN | 9781705060742 |
| PRICE | $34.99 (USD) |
| DURATION | 11 Hours, 15 Minutes |
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