Barclays unveils photos of Black Fives team; P.S. 282 and Nets player help
History, sports and art collided at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Monday, February 4, when 30 fourth and fifth graders from P.S. 282 in Park Slope stopped by to help unveil photographs of Brooklyn’ Black Fives – the early-20th Century African-American basketball league – that now hang in the sports complex’s main concourse.
The grade-schoolers were greeted by Brooklyn Nets guard C.J. Watson, Black Fives Foundation founder Claude Johnson, and descendants of the Black Fives team. Watson and Johnson gave the kids some background on the Black Fives and then taught them the basketball rules that were in play a century ago.
Johnson explained that “the men and women who played during the Black Fives era were true basketball pioneers who opened doors for generations of African-American players” and “the success of these teams ushered in the Harlem Renaissance period, smashed the color barrier in pro basketball, and helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Movement.”