(December 2005 – Falls Church, Virginia) The family of Edwin B. Henderson, the man acknowledged by historians as the person responsible in 1904 for first introducing the game of basketball to African Americans on a wide scale, organized basis, has formally submitted a Nomination Packet with materials and information they hope will make a compelling case for his enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The Nomination Packet deadline was December 2.
Henderson’s grandson, Edwin B. Henderson II, a schoolteacher in Falls Church, Virginia, and his wife, Nikki Graves, spearheaded the submission with the help of other relatives as well as an informal network of enthusiastic and authoritative supporters. “Now it is just ‘wait and see,’” says a modest Henderson of his grandfather’s nomination, after submitting a multi-media package of materials. “We don’t want to turn anyone off by overstating our case.”
Given that African American players dominate the game of basketball today, it would seem difficult to overstate the importance of the role that Edwin B. Henderson played in basketball history.
To be eligible for enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, candidates must meet certain requirements to qualify under one of four designations: Player, Coach, Referee, or Contributor.  Although Henderson's career spanned all four designations, his packet was submitted under the Contributor heading because Henderson 's biggest impact is considered to be his significant overall contribution to the game of basketball. According to the Hall of Fame, candidates under the Contributor designation must have made "significant contributions" to the game.
The nomination process begins with the submission of a formal Nomination Packet, which includes a nomination application form and information about the nominee. One of four seven-member Screening Committees then reviews the materials; there are committees for USA, Women, Veterans (for candidates whose careers ended more than 35 years prior to their nomination), and International candidates. The Veteran’s Screening Committee would review Henderson’s materials.
If five members of the Veteran’s Screening Committee were to vote affirmatively, then Henderson ’s nomination would advance to be evaluated by the Veterans Honors Committee. There are four Honors Committees, each with 24 members. Prior to their evaluation by the Veterans Honors Committee, all candidates that reach this level first would be reviewed by the Hall of Fame’s Board of Trustees to rule out any individuals who have damaged the integrity of the game of basketball.
Current board members include ex-NBA star and Basketball Hall of Fame member Alex English, ex-NBA player and NBA team owner Jerry Colangelo, University of Tennessee Women's Basketball Head Coach and Basketball Hall of Fame member Pat Summit, former University of Connecticut Athletics Director Lew Perkins (now the director of athletics at the University of Kansas),
NBA Entertainment Vice President of Advertising Carol Albert,
and NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Russ Granik, who is also the chairman of the trustee board.
Henderson’s involvement in basketball – and in the advocacy of organized physical fitness and recreation overall – was spotless and brilliant. He was a tireless in organizing the first all-black amateur athletic association, the Interscholastic Athletic Association, the Washington DC Public School Athletic League, and the Eastern Board of Officials, a training center that, for decades was the go-to pool for highly qualified African American referees. For 25 years, Henderson was also the appointed head of the Department of Physical Education for the segregated Washington, D.C. school system.
His life is the topic of numerous noteworthy books, papers, and proceedings, as well as a doctoral dissertation. Henderson himself was the author of several seminal books about African American participation in sports, including his landmark work The Negro In Sports (Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, Inc., 1939), as well as a regular contributor in the National Negro Press Association with pioneering magazines such as The Messenger and Crisis.
 From the 1910s through the 1950s, Henderson coached, taught, and influenced perhaps hundreds of thousands of Washington, DC area schoolchildren in basketball, including many later luminaries such as Duke Ellington and Charles Drew. In 1973, Henderson was elected Honorary President of the North American Society for Sport History. In 1974, along with Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Bill Russell, and Althea Gibson, he became an inaugural member of the Black Athletes Hall of Fame.
Henderson died in 1977 at age 93.
Beyond athletics, Edwin B. Henderson and his wife, Mary Ellen Henderson, an educator, were also determined and successful civil rights activists, fighting against housing discrimination in Falls Church and against segregated sports facilities in the greater Washington , DC area. Where at one time Falls Church tried to prevent the Hendersons from owning land in certain parts of town because of their race, now the local recreation center bears a plaque dedicated to Edwin Henderson’s legacy, and, just this year, a local middle school was named after Henderson's wife.
If, having gotten this far, the Hall of Fame Board of Trustees were to conclude that Henderson did not damage the integrity of basketball, then the enshrinement decision would next go to a Veterans Honors Committee ballot. To be inducted, Henderson would need a minimum of 18 out of 24 possible votes in the committee.
Guidelines for nomination and enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame are published online at the organization’s website.
The Hall of Fame keeps confidential the names of the members of its committees; however, the organization explains that committee members serve based on their “intimate understanding of the specific category of play considered by their committee.”
In the past, because there are so few persons with intimate understanding of those African Americans whose significant contributions to basketball were obscure to the mainstream during their time, or those whose contributions took place long before the advent of modern times in the game of basketball, the nominations of such contributors have sometimes presented a challenge. Often in such cases, grass roots support and awareness-building efforts involving the public, sportswriters, and other experts seem to have helped make the case. For example, support for the enshrinement of former New York Rens player Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, who is considered one of the best centers of his time, reached a peak with the publication of a full-page article about his career in Ebony Magazine in October 1975; he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame the following year.
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