For Immediate Release: March 1, 2007

African American Basketball Pioneers
Subject Of Exhibition And Panel Discussion

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Oakland, CA. – Although 80% of current players in the National Basketball Association are black, professional basketball in the first half of the twentieth century was tainted by racism, keeping many talented African Americans off the courts. “The Quest for Equality: The Integration of the NBA” is the subject of a panel discussion and author signing scheduled for Saturday, March 10, 2:00-4:00 pm at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO), 659 14th Street (in downtown Oakland). Sports journalist Ron Thomas will discuss and sign his book, They Cleared the Lane: The NBA’s Black Pioneers. He will also join a group of guest speakers (to be announced) for a longer panel discussion. This free event is being held in conjunction with a new exhibition, Quest for Equality: African American Pioneers in the Sport of Basketball, being held at AAMLO through March 17, 2007.

In They Cleared the Lane, Ron Thomas tells the largely untold story of early basketball trailblazers, including recent Hall of Fame inductee Earl Lloyd, early star athletes like Maurice Stokes and Bill Russell, and the NBA’s first black coaches. This same history is covered in the exhibition, Quest for Equality, which was originally created by the National Civil Rights Museum, in conjunction with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The exhibition, now on tour thanks to a grant from the NBA and Southwest Airlines, provides a historical timeline of the pursuit for justice and equality that paved the way for today’s players, coaches, and owners starting from the game’s invention in 1891. As with other areas of society, African Americans’ struggle to be admitted into world of professional basketball reflected the segregated practices and discriminatory policies of the time. This exhibition chronicles the many of firsts and the courageous pioneers in basketball history.

For more information, please contact the African American Museum and Library at (510) 637-0200, or visit our Web site at www.oaklandlibrary.org. To request sign interpretation or other accommodation, please call at least five working days prior to the event. AAMLO is a division of the Oakland Public Library.

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