Project essay

The obstacles that African American faced in the early 1900s while trying to play basketball were racism and the Jim Crow laws were still around which limit blacks rights. They overcame these obstacles and open the door for many other athletes today.
The early African Americans faced struggles up to the 1950s. They faced Jim Crow laws, which prevented African –American to play or get involve with certain activities. It made it hard for them to play Basketball in some college Universities because they couldn’t have Black White interracial teams. When the ABA, the American Basketball Association was organized in 1925, no African Americans were allowed to play in it. The first schools to allow Blacks to play in their university were Detroit University, Long Island university, and Boston university.
There were three African Americans who broke the color line. There was Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, Chuck Cooper, and, Earl Lloyd. Jim Crow Laws made it very difficult for African American basketball player to play in the NBA, which was known ABA. The first player to play on the court was Earl Lloyd in 1950 with the Washington Capitols. Lloyd was known for his defense in West Virginia State College. There was a dispute about Chuck Cooper, who was actually drafted by the Celtics in 1950. After four years with the Celtics he was then traded to the Milwaukee Hawks. Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton was first to sign a contract with the Knicks. He was able to bring the Knicks to their first NBA finals. At age 34, he became the oldest player in NBA history to be named an All-Star. Thanks to theses players, players like Michael Jordan which is known today as the greatest basketball player today and LeBron James which is a young up coming All-Star are able to show or have shown their skills and able to make big money and influence other upcoming talented young basketball players like the first African Americans did with today Basketball All-Star.
Though obstacles were in the way of African Americans, they broke through them and open many doors for future African American NBA stars. They gain great support from people who supported civil rights movements, whites and black. This also helps other African American get into other sports and other activities that they couldn’t get into before.