Originally Published: May 21, 2007

BLACK
ENTREPRENEUR

CLAUDE JOHNSON

MAKES BUSINESS OF
AFRICAN AMERICANS'
BASKETBALL HISTORY 

CLAUDE JOHNSON 

Smart Man

Good Concept

Successful Business

Claude Johnson's company  Black  Fives, Inc. is a perfect example of the kind of spirit, drive and intelligence  that provides evidence for all of us that African Americans can succeed  in the business of Sports in every way.

Johnson has taken "ancient" but  important history and he is selling it and in so doing keeping alive the  real history of Basketball in America and creating new interest in this  powerful chapter of American history. We need thousands of Claude Johnson's  making Black Capitalism work.

Johnson who worked in the NBA licensing  department 10 years ago became fascinated with the early days of  Black Basketball, heavily researched the subject and turned up troves of  information and photos that had been buried in the Library of Congress  and elsewhere ignored for years.

The result was the company formed  by Johnson in 2001 in Connecticut to market the early days of Black  Basketball to the nation and the world and he has been wildly successful  doing so attracting the interest of Nike and Converse among other sports  industry giants. Making a name for himself.

Soon after Basketball was invented  - that's right invented - in 1891 in Canada by James Naismith, teams  began being referred to as "fives" because of the number of players on  a team. The game grew rapidly in interest and quickly expanded to the U.S.  where like everything else it was segregated. Blacks played Basketball.  Whites played Basketball. But NEVER together.

The period from shortly after 1891 until the first integration of the newly organized NBA in the  late 1940s, became for African Americans known as the Black Fives  Era. Decades of spectacular basketball by and for African Americans and  a small cadre of Whites who appreciated the best in Basketball and were  not afraid to be seen at all Black sporting venues.

The Black Fives never became a formal  league unlike the Negro Leagues in Baseball but the Basketball version  was every bit as energetic and entertaining and held a powerful attraction  in African American communities. And reflecting the richness and all round  playfulness of African Americans when not under the hammer of White Society,  Black Five games were about more than just great basketball. Almost all  featured a full orchestra or band performing throughout and once the game  was over the hardwood turned into a dance floor.

The Black Fives was barnstorming  basketball with intricate national schedules of games leading up to the  "Colored Basketball World Championship" each year starting in 1907   with teams like the Harlem Renaissance, the Smart Set Athletic Club of  Brooklyn,  the Commonwealth Five of Chicago and the awesome Loendi  Big Five, winning the annual Championship.

Today if it were not for Black Entrepreneurship  and the money making potential one brilliant African American businessman  Claude Johnson saw, if not for Johnson who has become wealthy selling back  the Black Fives in terms of merchandise and marketing deals, no one would  know about this rich rich era in American sports history. And early African  American success.

Here is a description of the Black  Fives era

in Claude Johnson's own words ....

" The Black Fives Era spanned what  were perhaps America's darkest yet most colorful years, a rich period that  included the First Black Migration, the emergence of the phonograph, radio,  and entertainment culture, the explosion of jazz, ragtime, and the blues,  vice reform, lynchings and race riots, the ballroom dancing craze, Prohibition,  the Roaring '20s, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, two World  Wars, and the Golden Age of Sports."

" Black Fives fostered hope, pride,  unity, and self-esteem among African Americans during the most pivotal  period in black history of the last century. The men and women of the Black  Fives Era were true basketball pioneers whose desire simply to play and  develop the game opened doors for generations of black players, leaving  a worldwide legacy that inspires all ballers."

Bravo Claude Johnson

now go visit his Website

www.blackfives.com

learn a lot more and

BUY something

The Black Fives

Live on .....

HISTORY COMES ALIVE