The Grandfather of Black Basketball

Edwin Bancroft Henderson

doi:10.5771/9781538163627

Summary

The first contemporary biography of the man credited with introducing basketball to African Americans on a wide-scale, organized basis.

Dr. Edwin Bancroft Henderson was the son of working-class parents born in slavery. A driven, intelligent, and charismatic young man, Henderson attended Harvard University’s Dudley Sargent School of Physical Training. There he met the leaders in the new field of physical education and recognized athletics—and basketball, especially—as a public health initiative and a way that young Blacks could gain college scholarships and debunk the idea of racial inferiority.

In The Grandfather of Black Basketball: The Life and Times of Dr. E. B. Henderson, Edwin Bancroft Henderson II—Dr. Henderson’s grandson—provides unprecedented detail and fascinating insight into this influential figure in Black history. Henderson organized the first athletic league for Blacks, introduced basketball to Black people on a wide-scale, organized basis, and founded associations to train and organize Black officials and referees. He also wrote and co-edited the first Spalding publication that highlighted the exploits of African American participation in sports and authored The Negro in Sports. Outside of athletics, Henderson was instrumental in founding the first rural branch of the NAACP, advocated for school desegregation, and held executive board positions with multiple NAACP branches.

Overlooked for decades, Henderson was finally enshrined in the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 as a contributor. The Grandfather of Black Basketball gives long-overdue recognition to a sports pioneer, civil rights activist, author, educator, and pragmatic humanitarian who fought his entire life to improve opportunities for youth through athletics.

Keywords

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2024
ISBN-Print: 978-1-5381-6361-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-5381-6362-7
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 274
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Illustrations No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. Foreword No access
5. Introduction No access
Sunrise No access Pages 1 - 6
The “Black Mecca” No access Pages 7 - 18
Pittsburgh No access Pages 19 - 24
Back Home to Washington No access Pages 25 - 30
M Street High School No access Pages 31 - 38
Miner Teacher’s College, Normal School No. 2 No access Pages 39 - 46
Ned and Nell’s Courtship No access Pages 47 - 54
Harvard University’s Dudley Sargent School of Physical Training No access Pages 55 - 62
Building the Infrastructure No access Pages 63 - 74
Building the Framework for Organized Athletics No access Pages 75 - 82
Eastern Board of Officials (EBO) No access Pages 83 - 88
Basketball Games Begin in Washington (1907) No access Pages 89 - 94
Bringing Home the Title No access Pages 95 - 104
E. B. Henderson’s Early Published Works No access Pages 105 - 114
The Hendersons Move to Falls Church, Virginia No access Pages 115 - 122
Protest in Virginia No access Pages 123 - 148
Protest in the Nation’s Capital No access Pages 149 - 164
The Rise of Professional Sports in Washington, DC No access Pages 165 - 180
Articles, Letters, and The Negro in Sports No access Pages 181 - 192
Highland Beach, Maryland No access Pages 193 - 202
Sunset No access Pages 203 - 220
Epilogue No access Pages 221 - 226
Notes No access Pages 227 - 244
References No access Pages 245 - 254
Index No access Pages 255 - 272
About the Author No access Pages 273 - 274