Just after the game of basketball was invented in 1891, teams were called “fives” in reference to their five starting players.

Basketball, like American society, was racially segregated. Teams made up entirely of African American players were often known as “colored quints,” “Negro cagers,” or “black fives.”


The sport remained divided from 1904 — when basketball was first introduced to African Americans on a wide scale organized basis — until the racial integration of the National Basketball League in the 1940s and the National Basketball Association in 1950.

The period in between became known as the Black Fives Era, when dozens of all-black teams emerged, flourished, and excelled.

African Americans were making moves in basketball generations before the N.B.A. was born.

At first, those teams – sponsored by churches, athletic and social clubs, “Colored” YMCAs, businesses, and newspapers – had few places to play, since gymnasiums and athletic clubs were whites-only.

But when the phonograph emerged in the early 1900s, black music – ragtime, jazz, and blues – became so popular that a dance craze swept America. Almost overnight, sheet music and player pianos in the parlor gave way to dance halls and ballrooms.

Positive and culturally affirming opportunities in the entertainment industry replaced the insulting, degrading minstrelsy of the past.

For observant and enterprising African American sports promoters, these spaces became ready-made basketball venues on off nights, featuring music by top black musicians and dancing afterward until well past midnight.