Images from some of our recent school visits, where we are presenting the local history of the Black Fives Era of basketball in partnership with the Brooklyn Nets as a part of their Nets Assist educational programming.
Recent School Visits in Brooklyn
Jay-Z’s co-ownership of the Brooklyn Nets reminds us of the Smart Set Athletic Club — America’s first all-black basketball team — whose players lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section where he grew up.
Did you know that Lena Horne was the daughter of Edwin “Teddy” Horne, who played basketball for the Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn?
This story from a Black Fives Era descendant links the distant basketball past with the funeral of New York Renaissance star John Isaacs earlier this year.
The site of the former home of Smart Set Athletic Club founding father Edwin F. Horne, grandfather of Lena Horne, is now a playground in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn.