Black Fives History Featured in America’s 250th Anniversary Exhibition at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library
We are honored to announce that artifacts from the Black Fives Archives have been selected for inclusion in E Pluribus Unum: Celebrating the American Experience, a major America 250 exhibition opening June 30, 2026, at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas.
The exhibition, which runs through May 16, 2027, is part of America’s 250th anniversary observance. Drawing upon holdings from the National Archives, private lenders, and cultural institutions, E Pluribus Unum explores the many threads that together form the American experience.
For the Black Fives Foundation, the significance of this moment extends beyond the artifacts themselves.
The inclusion of early African American basketball history in a major presidential library exhibition affirms that the Black Fives Era is not a separate story from American history. It is part of the American experience itself.
Why These Artifacts Matter
Among the Black Fives artifacts selected for the exhibition are three particularly significant items.
The first is a remarkable 1941 Diversity Ticket documenting a basketball doubleheader involving the New York Rens, Philadelphia SPHAs, Akron Firestones, and Toledo White Huts, which brought together Black, Jewish, and White teams at a pivotal moment in American history. Just three weeks earlier, FDR had delivered his famous “Four Freedoms” speech, one of the defining statements of American democratic ideals in the twentieth century.
At a time when segregation remained a reality across much of American life, the ticket reflects a rare gathering of athletes and communities whose stories collectively mirror the diversity of the American experience. It essentially embodies the very themes explored by E Pluribus Unum.
The event also raised funds for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, linking basketball to the broader civic and humanitarian efforts associated with President Roosevelt’s birthday celebrations.
The second is the only known surviving copy of George T. Hepbron’s How to Play Basketball (1904). Hepbron was an early basketball rules authority and a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. Published just thirteen years after the invention of basketball, the guide offers a rare glimpse into the game’s formative years and is the earliest known instructional work on the sport.
The third featured item is a 1954 Harlem Globetrotters program. Coming before the establishment of today’s NBA as we know it, the program helps illuminate the transition from the Black Fives Era into the modern professional game and preserves an important chapter in basketball’s evolving story.
Together, these artifacts help tell a larger story about innovation, perseverance, entrepreneurship, community, and opportunity through the lens of basketball.
For more than two decades, the Black Fives Foundation has researched, preserved, shared, and honored the history of African American basketball teams, players, coaches, owners, promoters, and communities from the era before the NBA became racially integrated in 1950. Through archival research, exhibitions, educational programs, publications, institutional partnerships, and public history initiatives, the Foundation has worked to ensure that this once-overlooked chapter of American history is no longer forgotten.
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, this exhibition offers an opportunity to reflect on the many people and communities whose contributions helped shape the nation.
History doesn’t change; only what we do with it.
We are grateful to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the exhibition team for the opportunity to contribute to this important exhibition and to help share the story of the Black Fives Era with visitors from across the country.
E Pluribus Unum: Celebrating the American Experience will be on view at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum from June 30, 2026, through May 16, 2027.