"If the thing you wish to do is right, and you believe in it,
go ahead and do it!"
- Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich, 1937)
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A Letter
Greenwich, Connecticut
Dear Reader,
Black Fives, Inc. researches, preserves, promotes, and teaches the history of African American participation in basketball. In particular, its focus is on the many all-black teams that played from the early 1900s through the late-1940s, prior to the racial integration of pro basketball, a period that I call the Black Fives Era.
Through scholarly research, methodical archival preservation, trademark protection, and thoughtful promotion, our goal is to bring the teams of the Black Fives Era back to life. Why? Because in the basketball family tree, this era is where our lineage started; those players are our on-court ancestors. This is our history. We should be conscious of it. Learning about our past may teach us new things about ourselves, and allow us to put some present-day issues and circumstances into better perspective.
We strive for our research to be impeccable. Few if any historians know as much - or, more importantly, feel as much - about the Black Fives Era as we do. We love, honor, and respect our early basketball forbearers, and we hope this passion shows up in our work. We are overjoyed any time we uncover any new shred of history relating to the all-black teams of that bygone basketball age. At the same time, we also often feel the pain our ancestors endured, because the history of this segregated era is intense not only from a basketball perspective, but also socially, culturally, economically, politically, physically, emotionally, and mentally. It was a particularly difficult time for most African Americans.
Protection and preservation of this history is vital to us. We are conscious of how black history has been lost, ignored, misinterpreted, misunderstood, misappropriated, or exploited in the past. We want the telling and retelling of our basketball legacy to be done with respect, dignity, sincerity, and accuracy, and we don't want the stories to end with just the storytelling. Therefore, we have gone to great lengths to protect the intellectual property associated with the Black Fives Era, through trademark registration and other means. Yet, although our company might own the trademarks for our Black Fives teams, we do not own the history. The history is all of ours, to share and pass on.
I have personally spent many years traveling throughout America to uncover the details that connect the dots that eventually lead to the families and descendents of the players of Black Fives Era teams. At first, I did this to seek information and request permission for any use of those players or their names in connection with our products and related materials. I did not find everyone. Moreover, some were not aware that one of their ancestors was such a part of basketball history. However, most often, people were just nearly speechless that someone was actually going to tell that story about, say, their grandfather. This became the most satisfying thing.
When I came back from the factory to show off the authentic team apparel reproductions our company had made, you could see the glow and feel the genuine warmth on the faces of those basketball descendents. Anybody who has ever tried out for a team knows the feeling of putting on that uniform for the first time, but this is different. While putting on a Black Fives garment, we have a momentary chance to connect with what Paul Robeson, Cumberland Posey, Edwin Henderson, or John Isaacs must have felt like on a given game day, not only in their basketball triumphs but also in the context of their own lives. That is powerful and, in our opinion, unavoidable! That is the goal of our efforts. We are proud to be involved in such a worthwhile thing, and we hope that you become proud too, the minute you learn about Black Fives.
Very Sincerely,
Claude Johnson
Founder and President
Black Fives, Inc.
Claude Johnson's Bio
