Why read The Black Fives?

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

Book description

A groundbreaking, timely history of the largely unknown early days of Black basketball, bringing to life the trailblazing players, teams, and impresarios who made the game From the introduction of the game of basketball to Black communities on a wide scale in 1904 to the racial integration of the NBA…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Black Fives as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Thomas Aiello

Author

As someone who spends most of his professional life studying Black history, the story of the Negro Leagues of professional basketball has been so important to me. Unlike the Negro Leagues of professional baseball, people don’t pay as much attention to basketball teams.

I love learning more about them. They often played games in nightclubs, bringing the stories into the heart of the Harlem Renaissance and tying them to the interwar culture of jazz and prohibition.

From Thomas' list on The best books to understand the different meanings of professional basketball.