About Me
Black Fives ( BlackFives.com ) is for sneaker buffs, basketball fans, personal improvement seekers, sports enthusiasts, vintage lovers, black culture aficionados, culture respecters, and history makers.
Black Fives combines insights about pre-NBA African American basketball history with popular elements of black culture to produce meaningful motivation, inspiration, and enlightenment you can use today.
That's why our slogan is ?Make History Now!"
Black Fives is dedicated to researching, preserving, teaching, and promoting the early history of African American participation in basketball.
Softkey Left softkey Right
This page features information, news, dialog, and vintage products relating to the many all-black teams that played from the early 1900s through the late 1940s, prior to the racial integration of professional basketball, a period known as the Black Fives Era.
Just after basketball was invented in 1891, teams were called "fives" in reference to their five starting players. Basketball, like American society, was racially segregated. Teams made up entirely of black players were known as colored quints, colored fives, Negro fives, or black fives.
The sport remained segregated from 1891 until the racial integration of professional basketball leagues such as the National Basketball League (NBL) and the National Basketball Association beginning in the late 1940s.
The period in between became known as the Black Fives Era as dozens of amateur, semi-pro, and professional all-black teams- sponsored by or affiliated with churches, businesses, social clubs, colleges, and "Colored" YMCAs emerged, flourished, and matured, decades before the NBA was even born.
The rules are different today, and so is society, but the faces haven't changed. This is our history!
WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT: Black Fives is really just a vehicle for teaching and inspiring people about the lessons of the Black Fives Era and how we can learn and grow from them today to the best we can possibly be. There are lessons and personal growth opportunities in every facet of life, so why not tie it all together with special ingredients: basketball, history, African American culture, fashion, music ...
The game is different and so is society, but the faces haven't changed.
For more history and details please check out BlackFives.com , and for more product information, visit the Black Fives Online Gift Shop !
Also please visit the brand new Black Fives Blog , which has daily posts, scoops, and great information you can use now not later!
Please see this slideshow of Black Fives limited edition retro footwear by Nike, and other merchandise:
