A commonly held view is that the NBA owes a significant debt to black Americans, dating back to the integration of the league in 1950. While it's true that the integration of the NBA helped the league adopt a more entertaining style of play, a lesser-known perspective focuses on the influence of black Americans well before the 1950s. In fact, their influence goes back at least as far as black West Indian immigrants in the early 1900s, who played an important role in popularizing the game among black Americans.
Claude Johnson has been working to advance the general public's awareness of the very early black basketball pioneers for over a decade through efforts such as BlackFives.com and the Black Fives Foundation. These efforts have recently resulted in two significant accomplishments, the book Black Fives: The Alpha Physical Culture Club's Pioneering African American Basketball Team, 1904-1923 and a new display at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. During a recent visit to New York, I had opportunities to better appreciate both of Mr. Johnson's more recent successes.
Barclays Center
Photo by the author
On my plane ride from Dallas to New York, I finally finished reading about the Alpha Physical Culture Club. This entertaining work discusses the early amateur black basketball clubs of New York, who sought to use basketball as a way to maintain physical health and educate people about hygiene and morality. One of these clubs eventually led to the establishment of the New York Renaissance, which won the first ever World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1939 and had an important influence on the NBA's integration. (Read more about the Rens and their influence on integrating the NBA here.) Mr. Johnson plans to continue his work by writing subsequent books about other pioneering teams from the early 1900s. His work is badly needed and helps to fill an important void in out understanding of the game's origins.
In a recent New York Daily News article about his work, Mr. Johnson said:
When you see black history in America, often it has to do with drinking fountains, fire hoses and images of sharecroppers. You see the assassination of Martin Luther King and lynchings and then you go all the way back to slavery. Often it doesn’t have any positive associations, but here you see something different, an essence and a strength. You see an established black middle and upper class, and you can tell by (what you read) and by the looks on their faces that it is about something bigger, so much bigger, which was the advancement of the race.
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As part of my visit, I also had the opportunity to watch my hometown Dallas Mavericks take on the Brooklyn Nets at the Brooklyn's Barclays Center. The game itself was exciting, as what appeared to be a good number of Dallas fans watched the Mavs build a large lead before settling in for an eight point victory. As a side note, Brooklyn seems to be a relatively safe location for cheering on the opposing team, although anyone who loudly cheers for their favorite team in another arena should never be surprised to be the be the subject of minor heckling by home team fans. In this case, my cheers were quieted by the loudest heckler, who looked like quite a tough guy, but we shook hands and laughed about the experience after the game ended.
Photo by the author
Before the game, I took time to view several large portraits honoring the game's past that have recently been installed in the concourse at Barclays. These photos, which were also part of Mr. Johnson's efforts to educate fans about the early days of black basketball, include multiple images of the Smart Set Athletic club, which played in Brooklyn in the early 1900s, and the 1910 New York Girls team. Brooklyn has an lengthy and impressive basketball resume, which not only includes more recent successes such as Stephon Marbury, Jamaal Tinsley, and the great Michael Jordan, but also includes historical figures like the members of the Smart Set Athletic Club. With this new installation, Barclays now officially remembers Brooklyn's black basketball pioneers.
One of the new photos installed at Barclays Center
Photo by the author
Photo by the author
Given all of the contributions that Brooklyn has made to the game of basketball, it's good to see the game being played at it's highest level in this exciting and eclectic borough. I'm also happy to see that Claude Johnson is getting high praise for his work. Not only are his efforts badly needed, he seems to genuinely care about the game and its history. On a personal note, Claude was also quick to return my messages and send words of encouragement when I first began this blog about one year ago, which helped keep me inspired to continue blogging until this blog's readership grew to a more respectable level.
Claude Johnson deserves our thanks for his work to document untold stories from the history of the game. I hope he continues his work for many years, and I'm looking forward to reading his next books and reading about his many other future accomplishments in the coming years.
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