Grinding it out, one possession at a time, and in only our second year, we’ve achieved some amazing successes considering our size and the newness of our genre!
Major Accomplishments Since Organizing in 2013
We’re featured in Jay-Z’s Life+Times Magazine! The publication’s Quinn Peterson wrote this long-read article on the Black Fives Exhibition at the New-York Historical Society!
Claude Johnson was a guest on WNYC Radio’s Brian Lehrer Show in a segment called “Brooklyn’s Secret African-American Basketball History.”
As part of its grand opening, the Barclays Center has invited many of the known living descendants of early Brooklyn-based Black Fives Era pioneers.
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.
Breaking down the century-long connection between basketball and music.