Learning Resources Division: Freshman Book Series (Common Read): 2021-2022: I Came as a Shadow

I Came as a Shadow

The Freshman book selected for the Class of 2025 is I Came as a Shadow by John Thompson with Jesse Washington.

Summary

John Thompson was never just a basketball coach and "I Came As A Shadow" is categorically not just a basketball autobiography.

After five decades at the center of race and sports in America, Thompson—the iconic NCAA champion, Black activist, and educator—was ready to make the private public at last, and he completed this autobiography shortly before his death in the historically tumultuous summer of 2020. Chockful of stories and moving beyond mere stats (three Final Fours, four-time national coach of the year, seven Big East championships, 97 percent graduation rate), Thompson’s book drives us through his childhood under Jim Crow segregation to our current moment of racial reckoning. We experience riding shotgun with Celtics icon Red Auerbach and coaching NBA Hall of Famers like Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson. What were the origins of the the phrase “Hoya Paranoia”? You’ll see. And parting his veil of secrecy, Thompson brings us into his negotiation with a D.C. drug kingpin in his players’ orbit in the 1980s, as well as behind the scenes of his years on the Nike board.

Thompson’s mother was a teacher who had to clean houses because of racism in the nation's capital. His father could not read or write. Their son grew up to be a man with his own larger-than-life statue in a building that bears his family’s name on a campus once kept afloat by the selling of 272 enslaved Black people. This is a great American story, and John Thompson’s experience sheds light on many of the issues roiling our nation. In these pages, he proves himself to be the elder statesman whose final words college basketball and the country need to hear.

** From the publisher

Themes

The book looks at the following themes:

Coaching and Mentorship
Code-Switching
Identity and Blackness
Institutional and Structural Racism
Family, Community, and Belonging
Injustice and Social Action
Struggle and Perseverance
Love and Personal Growth
Education
Sports and Identity
Stereotypes

Author Information

Basketball Hall of Famer John Thompson's name is synonymous with success, as is the program he built at Georgetown University. Whether the yardstick used to measure that success is overall wins (596- 239), post season appearances (24 consecutive), graduation rate (97%- 76 of 78 students who stayed four years) or players drafted by the NBA (26, 8 in the first round), Coach Emeritus John Thompson built a winner. He established a program which has been a standard bearer for the BIG EAST Conference with League leading records vs. all conference opponents (233-122), vs. Conference opponents in regular season play, (199-107) in post season play (34-15) and in Conference championships (7 regular season, 6 tournament). His teams have: won a National Championship (1984), appeared in three Final Fours (1982, 1984, 1985) and played in 20 NCAA Tournaments, 14 appearances being consecutive.

He was named "Coach of the Year" a total of seven times. The BIG EAST Conference, in the 1991-92 season named him Coach of the Year for the third time (having previously awarded him this title in 1979-80 and 1986-87). The United States Basketball Writers Association and "The Sporting News" recognized him in 1983-84. The National Association of Basketball Coaches acknowledged him in 1984-85 and United Press International chose him in 1986-87.

The 1988 Olympic Head Coach in Men's Basketball for the USA, his team captured a bronze medal in Seoul. Mr. Thompson was also an assistant coach for the 1976 Olympic team, which won a Gold Medal in Montreal and was a member of the selection committee for the 1984 Olympic team, which won a gold medal in Los Angeles.

A major figure in and out of the coaching profession, John Thompson is a past president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has served on their board of directors. He is a trustee of the Basketball Hall of Fame. He has been a consultant and spokesman for Nike and is a member of its board of directors. He is one of the founders of 4-H in the nation's capital. He established Georgetown's "Kids and Cops" program, which annually gives away 10,000 tickets to Hoya basketball games. His protest of "proposition 42" focused national attention on issues of economic and educational discrimination.

Mr. Thompson's bachelor degree from Providence College was in economics, but he also holds a master's degree in guidance and counseling from the University of the District of Columbia. He has received honorary degrees from Georgetown University, St. Peter's College, Wheeling College and most recently from the University of the District of Columbia. He holds the titles of Coach Emeritus and Presidential Consultant for Urban Affairs at Georgetown University. He has received the two highest awards which Georgetown University can confer: the President's Award and the Patrick Healy Award.

Prior to his arrival at Georgetown, John Thompson was a highly successful high school coach, amassing a record of 122-28 at St. Anthony's High School in Washington DC. Before that, he played on two Boston Celtic World Championship teams under the tutelage of fellow Hall of Famer, Red Auerbach. While attending Providence College, Thompson led the Friars to the NIT Championship in 1963 and was named "New England Player of the Year" in the following season. The Providence College Student Congress named him "Most Outstanding Senior". Before college, Thompson led his John Carroll High School team to 55 consecutive victories and two city championships.

From Georgtown.edu

Read-Alikes

If you enjoyed I Came as a Shadow you might enjoy these books as well:

All the Colors Came Out: A Father, a Daughter, and a Lifetime of Lessons Kate Fagan and her father forged their relationship on the basketball court, bonded by sweaty high fives and a dedication to the New York Knicks. But as Kate got older, her love of the sport and her closeness with her father grew complicated. The formerly inseparable pair drifted apart. The lessons that her father instilled in her about the game, and all her memories of sharing the court with him over the years, were a distant memory. When Chris Fagan was diagnosed with ALS, Kate decided that something had to change. Leaving a high-profile job at ESPN to be closer to her mother and father and take part in his care, Kate Fagan spent the last year of her father’s life determined to return to him the kind of joy they once shared on the court. All the Colors Came Out is Kate Fagan’s completely original reflection on the very specific bond that one father and daughter shared, forged in the love of a sport which over time came to mean so much more. Studded with unforgettable scenes of humor, pain and hope, Kate Fagan has written a book that plumbs the mysteries of the unique gifts fathers gives daughters, ones that resonate across time and circumstance.
Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice So begins Yusef Salaam telling his story. No one's life is the sum of the worst things that happened to them, and during Yusef Salaam's seven years of wrongful incarceration as one of the Central Park Five, he grew from child to man, and gained a spiritual perspective on life. Yusef learned that we're all "born on purpose, with a purpose." Despite having confronted the racist heart of America while being "run over by the spiked wheels of injustice," Yusef channeled his energy and pain into something positive, not just for himself but for other marginalized people and communities. Better Not Bitter is the first time that one of the now Exonerated Five is telling his individual story, in his own words. Yusef writes his narrative: growing up Black in central Harlem in the '80s, being raised by a strong, fierce mother and grandmother, his years of incarceration, his reentry, and exoneration. Yusef connects these stories to lessons and principles he learned that gave him the power to survive through the worst of life's experiences. He inspires readers to accept their own path, to understand their own sense of purpose. With his intimate personal insights, Yusef unpacks the systems built and designed for profit and the oppression of Black and Brown people. He inspires readers to channel their fury into action, and through the spiritual, to turn that anger and trauma into a constructive force that lives alongside accountability and mobilizes change. This memoir is an inspiring story that grew out of one of the gravest miscarriages of justice, one that not only speaks to a moment in time or the rage-filled present, but reflects a 400-year history of a nation's inability to be held accountable for its sins. Yusef Salaam's message is vital for our times, a motivating resource for enacting change. Better, Not Bitter has the power to soothe, inspire and transform. It is a galvanizing call to action.
Can't Knock the Hustle: Inside the Season of Protest, Pandemic, and Progress with the Brooklyn Nets' Superstars of Tomorrow The Nets were already the most intriguing startup in the NBA: a team of influencers, entrepreneurs and activists, starring the controversial Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. But this dynasty-in-the-making got disrupted by the unforeseen. One tweet launched an international scandal, pitting the team's Chinese owner and the league's commissioner against its players and LeBron James. The sudden death of Kobe Bryant, after making his final public appearance in Brooklyn, sent shockwaves through a turbulent season. Then came the unimaginable. A global pandemic and a new civil-rights movement put basketball's trend-setting status to the ultimate test, as business and culture followed the lead of the NBA and its empowered stars. No team intersected with the extremes of 2020 quite like the Brooklyn Nets, and Matt Sullivan had a courtside view. Can't Knock the Hustle crosses from on the court, where underdogs confront A-listers like Jay-Z and James Harden, to off the court, as players march through the streets of Brooklyn, provoke Donald Trump at the White House, and boycott the NBA's bubble experiment in Disney World. Hundreds of interviews—with Hall-of-Famers, All-Stars, executives, coaches and power-brokers across the world—provide a backdrop of the NBA's impact on social media, race, politics, health, fashion, fame and fandom, for a portrait of a time when sports brought us back together again, like never before.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
Days of Grace DAYS OF GRACE is an inspiring memoir of a remarkable man who was the true embodiment of courage, elegance, and the spirit to fight: Arthur Ashe--tennis champion, social activist, and person with AIDS. Frank, revealing, touching--DAYS OF GRACE is the story of a man felled to soon. It remains as his legacy to us all....
Heaven Is a Playground: A Journey Into the Sweet World of Street Basketball Heaven Is a Playground, now in its fifth edition to include more information on Fly Williams, was the first book on the uniquely American phenomenon of urban basketball. Rick Telander, a photojournalist and former high school basketball player, spent part of the summer of 1973 and all of the summer of 1974 in Brooklyn living the playground life with his subjects at Foster Park in Flatbush. He slept on the floor of a park regular’s apartment, observing, questioning, traveling, playing with, and eventually coaching a ragtag group of local teenagers whose hopes of better lives were often fanatically attached to the transcendent game itself. Telander introduces us to Fly Williams, a playground legend with incredible leaping ability and self-destructive tendencies that threatened to keep him earthbound. Another standout was Albert King, a fourteen-year-old phenom whose shy, quiet demeanor masked an otherworldly talent that eventually took him to the NBA. This edition also includes Telander’s perspectives on the arrival of an NBA team in Brooklyn. Heaven Is a Playground is one of a kind—a funny, sad, ultimately inspiring book about Americans and the roots of the sport that they love.
Letters to a Young Athlete Chris Bosh, NBA Hall of Famer, eleven-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion, Olympic gold medalist, and the league’s Global Ambassador, had his playing days cut short at their prime by a freak medical condition. His extraordinary career ended not at a time of his choosing but “in a doctor’s office in the middle of the afternoon.” Forced to reckon with how to find meaning to carry forward, he found himself looking back over his path, from a teenager in Dallas who balanced basketball with the high school robotics club to the pinnacle of the NBA and beyond. Reflecting on all he learned from a long list of basketball legends, from LeBron and Kobe to Pat Riley and Coach K, he saw that his important lessons weren’t about basketball so much as the inner game of success—right attitude, right commitment, right flow within a team. Now he shares that journey, giving us a fascinating view from the inside of what greatness feels like and what it takes, formulated as a series of letters to younger people coming up and to all wisdom seekers. A timeless gift for anyone in pursuit of excellence, Letters to a Young Athlete offers a proven path for taming your inner voice and making it your ally, through the challenges of failure and the challenges of success alike.
The Mamba Mentality: How I Play In the wake of his retirement from professional basketball, Kobe “The Black Mamba” Bryant decided to share his vast knowledge and understanding of the game to take readers on an unprecedented journey to the core of the legendary “Mamba mentality.” Citing an obligation and an opportunity to teach young players, hardcore fans, and devoted students of the game how to play it “the right way,” The Mamba Mentality takes us inside the mind of one of the most intelligent, analytical, and creative basketball players ever. In his own words, Bryant reveals his famously detailed approach and the steps he took to prepare mentally and physically to not just succeed at the game, but to excel. Readers will learn how Bryant studied an opponent, how he channeled his passion for the game, how he played through injuries. They’ll also get fascinating granular detail as he breaks down specific plays and match-ups from throughout his career. Bryant’s detailed accounts are paired with stunning photographs by the Hall of Fame photographer Andrew D. Bernstein. Bernstein, long the Lakers and NBA official photographer, captured Bryant’s very first NBA photo in 1996 and his last in 2016―and hundreds of thousands in between, the record of a unique, twenty-year relationship between one athlete and one photographer. The combination of Bryant’s narrative and Bernstein’s photos make The Mamba Mentality an unprecedented look behind the curtain at the career of one of the world’s most celebrated and fascinating athletes.
Miseducated: A Memoir Brandon P. Fleming grew up in an abusive home and was shuffled through school, his passing grades a nod to his skill on the basketball court, not his presence in the classroom. He turned to the streets and drug deals by fourteen, saved only by the dream of basketball stardom. When he suffered a career-ending injury during his first semester at a Division I school, he dropped out of college, toiling on an assembly line, until depression drove him to the edge. Miraculously, his life was spared. Returning to college, Fleming was determined to reinvent himself as a scholar—to replace illiteracy with mastery over language, to go from being ignored and unseen to commanding attention. He immersed himself in the work of Black thinkers from the Harlem Renaissance to present day. Crucially, he found debate, which became the means by which he transformed his life and the tool he would use to transform the lives of others—teaching underserved kids to be intrusive in places that are not inclusive, eventually at Harvard University, where he would make champions and history. Through his personal narrative, readers witness Fleming’s transformation, self-education, and how he takes what he learns about words and power to help others like himself. Miseducated is an honest memoir about resilience, visibility, role models, and overcoming all expectations.
A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars Navigating poverty, violence, and instability, a young James Plummer had two guiding stars—a genius IQ and a love of science. But a bookish nerd is a soft target, and James faced years of bullying and abuse. As he struggled to survive his childhood in some of the country’s toughest urban neighborhoods in New Orleans, Houston, and LA, and later in the equally poor backwoods of Mississippi, he adopted the persona of “gangsta nerd”—dealing weed in juke joints while winning state science fairs with computer programs that model Einstein’s theory of relativity. Once admitted to the elite physics PhD program at Stanford University, James found himself pulled between the promise of a bright future and a dangerous crack cocaine habit he developed in college. With the encouragement of his mentor and the sole Black professor in the physics department, James confronted his personal demons as well as the entrenched racism and classism of the scientific establishment. When he finally seized his dream of a life in astrophysics, he adopted a new name, Hakeem Muata Oluseyi, to honor his African ancestors. Alternately heartbreaking and hopeful, A Quantum Life narrates one man’s remarkable quest across an ever-expanding universe filled with entanglement and choice.
Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South Based on more than eighty interviews, this fast-paced, richly detailed biography of Perry Wallace, the first African American basketball player in the SEC, digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a more complicated and profound story of sports pioneering than we've come to expect from the genre. Perry Wallace's unusually insightful and honest introspection reveals his inner thoughts throughout his journey. Wallace entered kindergarten the year that Brown v. Board of Education upended "separate but equal." As a 12-year-old, he sneaked downtown to watch the sit-ins at Nashville's lunch counters. A week after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Wallace entered high school, and later saw the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. On March 16, 1966, his Pearl High School basketball team won Tennessee's first integrated state tournament--the same day Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky Wildcats lost to the all-black Texas Western Miners in an iconic NCAA title game. The world seemed to be opening up at just the right time, and when Vanderbilt recruited him, Wallace courageously accepted the assignment to desegregate the SEC. His experiences on campus and in the hostile gymnasiums of the Deep South turned out to be nothing like he ever imagined. On campus, he encountered the leading civil rights figures of the day, including Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Robert Kennedy--and he led Vanderbilt's small group of black students to a meeting with the university chancellor to push for better treatment. On the basketball court, he experienced an Ole Miss boycott and the rabid hate of the Mississippi State fans in Starkville. Following his freshman year, the NCAA instituted "the Lew Alcindor rule," which deprived Wallace of his signature move, the slam dunk. Despite this attempt to limit the influence of a rising tide of black stars, the final basket of Wallace's college career was a cathartic and defiant dunk, and the story Wallace told to the Vanderbilt Human Relations Committee and later The Tennessean was not the simple story of a triumphant trailblazer that many people wanted to hear. Yes, he had gone from hearing racial epithets when he appeared in his dormitory to being voted as the university's most popular student, but, at the risk of being labeled "ungrateful," he spoke truth to power in describing the daily slights and abuses he had overcome and what Martin Luther King had called "the agonizing loneliness of a pioneer."
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning—from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America’s racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families’ safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers. These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.
Walk-On Warrior: Drive, Discipline, and the Will to Win Small town. Undersized. Not enough talent. John Willkom heard it all as a young basketball player growing up in rural Wisconsin. Despite the odds, John dedicated his life to the game, an arduous journey that challenged the very core of even the most disciplined. As John's hard work lands him amongst basketball's elite, it is the workouts, the people, and the behind-the-scenes interactions that not only change his skill set but how he lives his life. Both heartfelt and funny, Walk-On Warrior takes you into the mind of an athlete from John's perspective. Take a journey that will reignite your passion for life, challenge your perspectives on toughness and fear, and ultimately, inspire you to maximize your talent.

Co-author Interview

Discussion Questions

I Came as a Shadow is an autobiography that provokes a lot of discussion about institutional racism, coaching, education, and perseverance among other topics. Here are a few discussion questions to get you started talking about the book.

The title of the book comes from a poem by the John Thompson's uncle. How do you interpret its meaning?
What role does education play in Coach Thompson's life? What value does he place on education?
Coach Thompson called the basketball court his classroom, how does he teach using basketball?
Coach Thompson's father never learned to read. What impact do you think that had on Coach Thompson's life?
The NBA used a "quota system" to limit the number of Black players. How do you see quotas existing today?
Street basketball plays a large role in Coach Thompson's life. How do recreational sports play a role in your life?
How does institutional and systematic racism appear in the book? What role and impact does it have on Coach Thompson?
This is an autobiography of a basketball coach. Does the sport actually matter in how your read and understand the book?
Coach Thompson is clear that his goal is to win games. How does that influence his coaching and behavior around his players?
Coach Thompason doesn't apologize for using the "n-word"? Why? How does he use it?
John Thompson has a degree from UDC. What does that mean to you?

Related Books

Attucks! by Phillip Hoose
ISBN: 9780374306120
Publication Date: 2018-10-23
An ALA Notable Book of 2019 NYPL Best Book for Teens of 2018 A 2018 Booklist Youth Editors' Choice A Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Book of 2018 A Kirkus Reviews Best YA Nonfiction Book of 2018 An ALSC Notable Children's Book of 2019 A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Nominee The true story of the all-black high school basketball team that broke the color barrier in segregated 1950s Indiana, masterfully told by National Book Award winner Phil Hoose. By winning the state high school basketball championship in 1955, ten teens from an Indianapolis school meant to be the centerpiece of racially segregated education in the state shattered the myth of their inferiority. Their brilliant coach had fashioned an unbeatable team from a group of boys born in the South and raised in poverty. Anchored by the astonishing Oscar Robertson, a future college and NBA star, the Crispus Attucks Tigers went down in history as the first state champions from Indianapolis and the first all-black team in U.S. history to win a racially open championship tournament--an integration they had forced with their on-court prowess. From native Hoosier and award-winning author Phillip Hoose comes this true story of a team up against impossible odds, making a difference when it mattered most. This title has Common Core connections.
Basketball and Philosophy by Jerry L. Walls (Editor); Gregory Bassham (Editor); Dick Vitale (Foreword by)
ISBN: 0813138140
Publication Date: 2007-03-09
What can the film Hoosiers teach us about the meaning of life? How can ancient Eastern wisdom traditions, such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism, improve our jump-shots? What can the "Zen Master" (Phil Jackson) and the "Big Aristotle" (Shaquille O'Neal) teach us about sustained excellence and success? Is women's basketball "better" basketball? How, ethically, should one deal with a strategic cheater in pickup basketball? With NBA and NCAA team rosters constantly changing, what does it mean to play for the "same team"? What can coaching legends Dean Smith, Rick Pitino, Pat Summitt, and Mike Krzyzewski teach us about character, achievement, and competition? What makes basketball such a beautiful game to watch and play? Basketball is now the most popular team sport in the United States; each year, more than 50 million Americans attend college and pro basketball games. When Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, first nailed two peach baskets at the opposite ends of a Springfield, Massachusetts, gym in 1891, he had little idea of how thoroughly the game would shape American -- and international -- culture. Hoops superstars such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Yao Ming are now instantly recognized celebrities all across the planet. So what can a group of philosophers add to the understanding of basketball? It is a relatively simple game, but as Kant and Dennis Rodman liked to say, appearances can be deceiving. Coach Phil Jackson actively uses philosophy to improve player performance and to motivate and inspire his team and his fellow coaches, both on and off the court. Jackson has integrated philosophy into his coaching and his personal life so thoroughly that it is often difficult to distinguish his role as a basketball coach from his role as a philosophical guide and mentor to his players. In Basketball and Philosophy, a Dream Team of twenty-six basketball fans, most of whom also happen to be philosophers, proves that basketball is the thinking person's sport. They look at what happens when the Tao meets the hardwood as they explore the teamwork, patience, selflessness, and balanced and harmonious action that make up the art of playing basketball.
Black Bodies, White Gazes by George Yancy; Linda Martin Alcoff (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781442258341
Publication Date: 2016-11-02
Following the deaths of Trayvon Martin and other black youths in recent years, students on campuses across America have joined professors and activists in calling for justice and increased awareness that Black Lives Matter. In this second edition of his trenchant and provocative book, George Yancy offers students the theoretical framework they crave for understanding the violence perpetrated against the Black body. Drawing from the lives of Ossie Davis, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, and W. E. B. Du Bois, as well as his own experience, and fully updated to account for what has transpired since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Yancy provides an invaluable resource for students and teachers of courses in African American Studies, African American History, Philosophy of Race, and anyone else who wishes to examine what it means to be Black in America.
Black Gods of the Asphalt by Onaje X. O. Woodbine
ISBN: 9780231177283
Publication Date: 2016-05-24
J-Rod moves like a small tank on the court, his face mean, staring down his opponents. "I play just like my father," he says. "Before my father died, he was a problem on the court. I'm a problem." Playing basketball for him fuses past and present, conjuring his father's memory into a force that opponents can feel in each bone-snapping drive to the basket. On the street, every ballplayer has a story. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball player who became an all-star Ivy Leaguer, brings the sights and sounds, hopes and dreams of street basketball to life. He shows that big games have a trickster figure and a master of black talk whose commentary interprets the game for audiences. The beats of hip-hop and reggae make up the soundtrack, and the ballplayers are half-men, half-heroes, defying the ghetto's limitations with their flights to the basket. Basketball is popular among young black American men but not because, as many claim, they are "pushed by poverty" or "pulled" by white institutions to play it. Black men choose to participate in basketball because of the transcendent experience of the game. Through interviews with and observations of urban basketball players, Onaje X. O. Woodbine composes a rare portrait of a passionate, committed, and resilient group of athletes who use the court to mine what urban life cannot corrupt. If people turn to religion to reimagine their place in the world, then black streetball players are indeed the hierophants of the asphalt.
Black Men on the Blacktop by A. Rafik Mohamed
ISBN: 9781626376663
Publication Date: 2017-08-03
"Presents basketball, and especially pickup basketball, as a text of the political, social, and economic struggles of black men in the United States" --
Breaking Through by Milton S. Katz; Billy Packer (Foreword by); Ian Naismith (Foreword by)
ISBN: 155728847X
Publication Date: 2007-09-01
John B. McLendon was the last living protege of basketball's inventor, Dr. James Naismith, and one of the ""top ten basketball coaches of the century"" in Billy Packer's opinion. ""Breaking Through"", the first biography of this remarkable man, is the uplifting story of a champion's struggle for equality in 1940s and '50s America, when one coach refused to accept that teams at traditionally black colleges like North Carolina College and Tennessee State were unable to achieve national prominence. McLendon's creative and courageous efforts to ""break through"" the color lines of institutional racism include the famous ""secret game"" between his North Carolina College players and the Duke University Medical School in 1944, ten years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. McLendon taught his players, including such NBA standouts as Sam Jones, Dick Barnett, and John Barnhill, that dignity and self-respect were more important than the numbers on a scoreboard, though he nonetheless achieved a 76 percent winning mark over a twenty-five-year collegiate coaching career. He was an early pioneer of game preparation, conditioning, the fast break, the full-court press, and a two corner offense that became the seed for Dean Smith's famous four corners, and he won eight CIAA titles at North Carolina College between 1941 and 1952. McLendon's far-reaching list of firsts includes being the first coach to win three consecutive national titles (Tennessee State, 1957-59), the first black coach of an integrated professional team (the ABL's Cleveland Pipers), the first black coach at a predominately white college (Cleveland State), the first black coach in the ABA, the first black coach to publish a basketball book, the first black coach on the Olympic staff, the first black coach inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame...the list goes on. McLendon's amazing career culminated in his efforts as a basketball ambassador; he traveled to fifty-eight countries, teaching the fundamentals of the game and the value of sportsmanship, and many believe he contributed more to the proliferation of basketball worldwide than any other individual. ""Breaking Through"" is both a history lesson and an inspiration to any player, coach, or spectator who has ever known the transcendent powers of a game.
Give and Go by Thomas Mc Laughlin
ISBN: 9780791473931
Publication Date: 2008-03-06
A pickup basketball player looks at the pickup game as a distinctive culture using both personal experience and cultural studies theory.
Hoop by Brian Doyle
ISBN: 9780820351698
Publication Date: 2017-10-01
Brian Doyle himself explains it best: ?A few years ago I was moaning to my wry gentle dad that basketball, which seems to me inarguably the most graceful and generous and swift and fluid and ferociously-competitive-without-being-sociopathic of sports, has not produced rafts of good books, like baseball and golf and cricket and surfing have . . . Where are the great basketball novels to rival The Natural and the glorious Mark Harris baseball quartet and the great Bernard Darwin's golf stories? Where are the annual anthologies of terrific basketball essays? How can a game full of such wit and creativity and magic not spark more great books?" ?'Why don't you write one?' said my dad, who is great at cutting politely to the chase." And so he has. In this collection of short essays, Brian Doyle presents a compelling account of a life lived playing, watching, loving, and coaching basketball. He recounts his passion for the gyms, the playgrounds, the sounds and scents, the camaraderie, the fierce competition, the anticipation and exhaustion, and even some of the injuries.
Race, Wrongs, and Remedies by Amy L. Wax
ISBN: 1442200278
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Black Americans continue to lag behind on many measures of social and economic well-being. Conventional wisdom holds that these inequalities can only be eliminated by eradicating racism and providing well-funded social programs. In Race, Wrongs, and Remedies, Amy L. Wax applies concepts from the law of remedies to show that the conventional wisdom is mistaken. She argues that effectively addressing today's persistent racial disparities requires dispelling the confusion surrounding blacks' own role in achieving equality. The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that discrimination against blacks has dramatically abated. The most important factors now impeding black progress are behavioral: low educational attainment, poor socialization and work habits, drug use, criminality, paternal abandonment, and non-marital childbearing. Although these maladaptive patterns are largely the outgrowth of past discrimination and oppression, they now largely resist correction by government programs or outside interventions. Wax asserts that the black community must solve these problems from within. Self-help, changed habits, and a new cultural outlook are, in fact, the only effective tactics for eliminating the present vestiges of our nation's racist past. Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution
Reconstructing Fame by David C. Ogden
ISBN: 1617030449
Publication Date: 2011-05-31
With contributions by Prosper Godonoo, Urla Hill, C. Richard King, David J. Leonard, Jack Lule, Murry Nelson, David C. Ogden, Robert W. Reising, and Joel Nathan Rosen Reconstructing Fame: Sport, Race, and Evolving Reputations includes essays on Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Curt Flood, Paul Robeson, Jim Thorpe, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. The essayists in this volume write about twentieth-century athletes whose careers were affected by racism and whose post-career reputations have improved as society's understanding of race changed. Contributors attempt to clarify the stories of these sports stars and their places as twentieth-century icons by analyzing the various myths that surround them. When media, fans, sports leagues, and the athletes themselves commemorate sports legends, shifts in popular perceptions often serve to obscure an athlete's role in history. Such revisions can lack coherence and trivialize the efforts of some legendary competitors and those associated with them. Adding racial tensions to this process further complicates the task of preserving the valuable achievements of key players.
Sport and the Color Line by Patrick B. Miller (Editor); David K. Wiggins (Editor)
ISBN: 0415946107
Publication Date: 2003-11-26
The year 2003 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of W.E.B. Du Bois' "Souls of Black Folk," in which he declared that "the color line" would be the problem of the twentieth century. Half a century later, Jackie Robinson would display his remarkable athletic skills in "baseball's great experiment." Now, "Sport and the Color Line" takes a look at the last century through the lens of sports and race, drawing together articles by many of the leading figures in Sport Studies to address the African American experience and the history of race relations. The history of African Americans in sport is not simple, and it certainly did not begin in 1947 when Jackie Robinson first donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. The essays presented here examine the complexity of black American sports culture, from the organization of semi-pro baseball and athletic programs at historically black colleges and universities, to the careers of individual stars such as Jack Johnson and Joe Louis, to the challenges faced by black women in sports. What are today's black athletes doing in the aftermath of desegregation, or with the legacy of Muhammad Ali's political stance? The essays gathered here engage such issues, as well as the paradoxes of corporate sport and the persistence of scientific racism in the athletic realm.
Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? by Touré (Narrated by); Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword by)
ISBN: 1439177554
Publication Date: 2011-09-13
How do we make sense of what it means to be Black in a world with room for both Michelle Obama and Precious? Tour , an iconic commentator and journalist, defines and demystifies modern Blackness with wit, authority, and irreverent humor. In the age of Obama, racial attitudes have become more complicated and nuanced than ever before. Americans are searching for new ways of understanding Blackness, partly inspired by a President who is unlike any Black man ever seen on our national stage. This book aims to destroy the notion that there is a correct or even definable way of being Black. It’s a discussion mixing the personal and the intellectual. It gives us intimate and painful stories of how race and racial expectations have shaped Tour ’s life as well as a look at how the concept of Post-Blackness functions in politics, psychology, the Black visual arts world, Chappelle’s Show, and more. For research Tour has turned to some of the most important luminaries of our time for frank and thought-provoking opinions, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Malcolm Gladwell, Harold Ford, Jr., Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Chuck D, and many others. Their comments and disagreements with one another may come as a surprise to many readers. Of special interest is a personal racial memoir by the author in which he depicts defining moments in his life when he confronts the question of race head-on. In another chapter—sure to be controversial—he explains why he no longer uses the word “nigga.” Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? is a complex conversation on modern America that aims to change how we perceive race in ways that are as nuanced and spirited as the nation itself.

Research Resources

Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theater, and Cultural Studies.
Associates Programs Source Plus This link opens in a new window
More than 2,200 full-text journal titles and more than 360 full-text books including coverage in the following areas which align with UDC programs: general business, architecture, home & houses, aerospace sciences, general technology, telecommunications, construction & building, industrial technology, accounting & tax, computer science, law, educational assessment & evaluation, educational levels, fashion & style, visual arts, hospitality industry, hotel & restaurant management, recreation & leisure studies, travel, law enforcement industry, law enforcement & intelligence, social sciences & humanities, funeral services industry, music, allied health, health & medicine, medical administration & management, medical care & services.
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League This link opens in a new window
Booker T. Washington, founder of the National Negro Business League, believed that solutions to the problem of racial discrimination were primarily economic, and that bringing African Americans into the middle class was the key. In 1900, he established the League "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro," and headed it until his death.
Black Life in America This link opens in a new window
The experience of African Americans as recorded by the news media, 1704 to today. This primary source collection offers an expansive window into centuries of African American history, culture and daily life—as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent. The content in this database is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications.
Dig DC This link opens in a new window
Dig DC is your web portal for selected digitized and born-digital items from DC Public Library Special Collections, including the Washingtoniana collections and the Black Studies Center at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in downtown Washington, D.C. and the Peabody Room at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library.
Ebony Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship, and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.
Education Database This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Education Journals offers complete information on hundreds of educational topics and gives users access to over 790 top educational publications, including more than 615 of the titles in full text.
Education Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window
With access to 2,113 active full-text education journals, Education Source Ultimate is the world's largest and most comprehensive full-text research database designed for education students, researchers, professionals, and policymakers. Coverage spans all levels of education and includes a range of topics including education ethics, educational technology, literacy, research methodology, and more.
ERIC This link opens in a new window
ERIC is published by the U.S. Department of Education. It is the largest education database in the world.
Opposing Viewpoints In Context This link opens in a new window
The premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Opposing Viewpoints in Context helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.
Project MUSE - Premium Collection and PLUS+ This link opens in a new window
More than 800 journals in literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many other subject areas.
Project MUSE is a unique collaboration between libraries and publishers, providing 100% full-text, affordable and user-friendly online access to a comprehensive selection of prestigious humanities and social sciences journals. MUSE's online journal collections support a diverse array of research needs at academic, public, special and school libraries worldwide. Our journals are heavily indexed and peer-reviewed, with critically acclaimed articles by the most respected scholars in their fields. MUSE is also the sole source of complete, full-text versions of titles from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies. Currently, MUSE provides full-text access to current content from over 400 titles representing nearly 100 not-for-profit publishers.
Social Science Database This link opens in a new window
The database includes over 570 titles, with more than 340 available in full text. It provides information on hundreds of topics, including: addiction studies, urban studies, family studies, and international relations.
Sociology Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Covers all areas of sociology including criminology and criminal justice, demography, ethnic and racial studies, gender studies, marriage and family, political sociology, social development, and social psychology.

Instructor Resources

The ideas in the tabs above act as prompts to help you develop discussions, projects, or assignments related to I Came as a Shadow. They offer suggestions for ideas to include in your class or on your syllabus.

Here are some tips for leading a successful book discussion:

Before the Discussion

Read the book completely and take notes about the themes, motifs, and topics. Write down important page numbers and highlight important passages.
Come up with eight to ten questions about the book.

During the Discussion

Ask your question and let others answer first.
Make connections between comments.
Ask follow-up questions.
Bring the conversation back to the discussion if people go off on tangents.
Don't feel obligated to ask all your questions.
Don't end a conversation if people are on-topic and really enjoying what they are sharing.
Wrap up the discussion by highlighting key points.
Thank the participants.

The following may be used as project prompts for I Came as a Shadow:

Create your dream team of mentors and coaches. Explain why you need each of them as your players.
Draft a proposal to protest a policy you think is unfair.
Create a playlist of songs representing the different eras of Coach Thompson's life. Explain why you picked each song.
John Thompson wore a towel over his shoulder to honor his mother. What props do you use in life? Who do they honor? Why?
Map out Coach Thompson's life in DC. How does it overlap with your life?
The title of the book comes from a poem. What poem would provide a line to the title of your life? Why?

The following may be used as writing prompts for I Came as a Shadow:

Discuss institutional racism. What is it? What impacts does it have on your life?
How do you define yourself versus how others see you or stereotype you?
What do you think it would have been like to play for Coach Thompson? Why?
What were you most shocked to read or learn? Why?
Share a favorite quote from the book. Why did this quote stand out?
What aspects of the author’s story could you most relate to?
If you got the chance to ask the author of this book one question, what would it be?
What do you consider to be Coach Thompson's most enduring legacy? Why?

Freshman Book Series (Common Read)