Black Fives

Headline Makers

Some of the most famous African American female basketball teams during the Black Fives Era

Fame was relative for early Black women’s teams, measured primarily by newsprint in locally distributed African American newspapers. At first, they were reported by weekly papers such as the Amsterdam News and New York Age in Harlem, the Defender on Chicago’s South Side, and the Courier throughout Pittsburgh, as well as in campus publications at historically Black colleges and universities. But after Black female squads began barnstorming during the early 1930s, they started generating national headlines in syndicated African American weeklies as well as in White newspapers that promoted their upcoming arrival in a given city or town.

As women’s Black fives became more popular and competitive, dainty white blouses and bloomers gave way to formfitting basketball jerseys and matching shorts, prompting some authorities to doubt whether females were compatible with the sport. One male physician who was presumed to be an expert on such matters would declare in 1911 that, “basket ball is injurious and should not be engaged in by girls or women.” He added that “the nature of women should keep them from this dangerous sport.”

And just like their White counterparts, Black women’s basketball teams would often play using a slightly altered version of the men’s rules that were considered safer.

There were usually five players per side, but in some parts of the country, six players would be used, three on offense and three on defense. This disparity between so-called boy’s rules and girl’s rules would eventually cause debate, even among men. “As long we use the other fellow’s rules and his ball, net and mark the floor like he does, we might just as well cut off the sixth player and make all teams five girls each,” the well-known African American sportswriter Frank Young would recommend.

(Black Fives Foundation Archives)