The Smart Set Athletic Club was an athletic club based in Brooklyn, NY.[1][2][3][4] The club organized the first African-American basketball team, one of the most successful teams in the Black Fives Era.[1]
History
editFounded in 1904, the Smart Set Athletic Club is credited with assembling the first formal fully independent African-American basketball team.[2] The team debuted in 1907. The Smart Set Athletic Club team was also a founding member of the Olympian Athletic League, along with the Alpha Physical Culture Club, the Marathon Athletic Club of Manhattan, and the St. Christopher Club.[2]
Smart Set members came from a background of well-educated, affluent African Americans who resided in what at the time was a predominantly white Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b Cooper, Pamela (1 April 1998). The American Marathon. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815605201.
- ^ a b c d "Smart Set Athletic Club | The Black Fives Foundation". 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
- ^ Barron, James (2013-02-01). "Long Before the Brooklyn Nets, There Were the Black Fives". City Room. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
- ^ Sandomir, Richard (2014-03-19). "Remembering the 'Black Fives' of Pro Basketball (Published 2014)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
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