Enshrinement in @hoophall gives #Pittsburgh native #CumPosey the ONLY true lifetime #tripledouble as player/owner/HOFer in TWO sports! #makehistorynow

We are super proud and delighted that US Secretary of #Education John King is a descendent of the #BlackFivesEra, the nephew of pioneering #AfricanAmerican basketball star and Brooklyn hero William “Dolly” King! Dolly was a 6’-4” 220 lb. three-sport star and a two-time New York City All-Scholastic athlete at Alexander #Hamilton Vocational High School in #BedfordStuyvesant (now Paul Robeson High), lettering in football, basketball, and baseball. One of his classmates at Hamilton, fellow Brooklyn native #HowardCosell, called King “one of the best built athletes I have ever seen in all my years in sports.” Education runs in the family because after his #basketball career, Dolly became a professor at #Manhattan #CommunityCollege. Dolly’s brother, the late John B. King, who is the father of Secretary King, was a #publicschool principal in #Brooklyn (PS 26) and went on to become the first African American Deputy Chancellor in the #NewYorkCity Public Schools. Dolly’s son, Michael, is a member of the board of directors for the Black Fives Foundation. Let’s hear it for the King family! Amazing pioneers in education, sports, and beyond! #makehistorynow

For more information please visit http://www.blackfives.org (at Brooklyn, New York)

#AfricanAmerican #women’s #basketball team, unidentified, in the bloomer and bow uniforms typically worn by #female #players in the early #1900s.

In a ceremony at the #BarclaysCenter in #Brooklyn, #NYCHA President John Rhea reads a proclamation on behalf of Mayor Michael Bloomberg declaring February 10, 2013 as “Black Fives Day” for the City of #NewYork. Looking on are #descendants of #BlackFives Era pioneers, Barclays Center Exec. Vice President David Berliner, Black Fives Foundation Exec. Director Claude Johnson, and Johnson’s 8-year-old son. (Barry Baum)

St. Christopher Club Vandal High Limited Edition Premium Leather from the #BlackFives Collection by #Nike. Dark Cinder, Varsity Red, Team Red. Nike Style No. 315060-261.

The #StChristopher Club was an #AfricanAmerican basketball team from #NewYorkCity that played during the early part of the Black Fives Era as an offshoot of St. Philip’s #Protestant #Episcopal #Church, then one of the country’s most prominent black churches.

St. Philip’s was located on #West26thStreet, in the middle of what was then a predominantly African American #neighborhood called the “Tenderloin.“ The #Tenderloin was overrun by mostly white-owned establishments where #gambling, #liquor, #vice, and its related crimes were so rampant that the district was known as “Satan’s Circus.”

The St. Christopher Club was meant to prevent moral decay by offering an #inspirational alternative through #sports.

Instead of being merely an alternative, the St. C’s became a #basketball powerhouse, winning the black national #championship twice during the 1910s.

@ClaudeJohnson with #BlackFives Era #descendant Gail Lumet Buckley, who is the granddaughter of Smart Set Athletic Club player Edwin “Teddy” Horne (seated far right) and the daughter of Lena Horne, at the unveiling of a vintage African American basketball image compilation at the #BarclaysCenter in #Brooklyn.

Julia Alexander of the #BlackFives #Foundation poses at the #BarclaysCenter with her great-grandfather #HudsonOliver, star pre-1910 #player with the #SmartSet #Athletic #Club #basketball #team of #Brooklyn. #MakeHistoryNow

@Claude203 and #BlackFives #descendants honored at center #court of #BarclaysCenter in #Brooklyn during #halftime of #Nets #Spurs game last Sunday. (Photo: Ariel Hudes)

By special #proclamation, the Office of the #Mayor of the #City of #NewYork declared February 10, 2013 as #BlackFives Day, in a #ceremony at #BarclaysCenter. It was epic! More: http://goo.gl/mo9xB