African American physical education teacher Edwin Henderson, the “Father of Black Basketball,” learned to play the game while taking classes at Harvard University in the summer of 1904. After returning home to Washington, D.C., he taught black students in the district’s segregated schools how to play basketball. In the years that followed, Henderson introduced the sport to blacks living in cities all along the East Coast. He was determined to disprove racial stereotypes that portrayed blacks as inferior athletes incapable of playing physically demanding team sports.
As basketball’s popularity increased in African American communities, churches, social organizations, businesses, and “colored YMCAs” (YMCAs were segregated at the time) began sponsoring all-black teams. At the time, basketball teams were commonly referred to as “fives” because they had five starting players. All-black teams…
