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Jeffrey Nong Mr. Bradshaw AP US History Period 5 Research Paper: Harlem Globetrotters To what extent did the Harlem Globetrotters impact the Civil Rights Movement and foreign affairs?
Before the NBA there was a league called the ABA in the 1920’s this was a league where only whites were allowed to play on a team. This was because the Jim Crow laws were enforced. In 1926 a team known as the Savoy Big Five was founded in Chicago by a Jewish immigrant named Abe Saperstein. Because Saperstein was a Jewish immigrant he understood the way his team felt after being treated wrong in Germany. This team was filled with black men and their goal was to gain rights for blacks not only for basketball, but for society
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This small black basketball team in Chicago ended up becoming a team impacting the Civil Rights Movement and foreign parties by fighting through racial discrimination and helping other countries as well as the U.S. Nong 2 Blacks were not allowed to play with whites so the Globetrotters wanted to prove themselves by playing against them. Saperstein called for tolerance so he brought Jesse Owens, a black track athlete that proved that blacks are as good as whites, to make sure their team got treated with respect. Saperstein made sure his team got paid up front in person so the whites won’t trick them and he did not trust them either. Throughout the Globetrotters call for equality, they finished the season with 16 losses and beat the defending champions of the league last year the Minneapolis Lakers. Many whites thought this was just was fluke and the Globetrotters got lucky. Then the next season the two teams met up again and the Globetrotters won again. After the Globetrotter’s back to back championships, in 1950 the league became integrated and blacks were able to join white teams. Although blacks were able to play with whites, they still did not have the same