A vital narrative history of 1970s pro basketball, and the Black players who shaped the NBA Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation’s imagined descent into disorder. A new generation of Black players entered the league then, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spencer Haywood, and the press and public were quick to blame this cohort for the supposed decline of pro basketball, citing drugs, violence, and greed. Basketball became a symbol for post-civil rights America: the rules had changed, allowing more Black people onto the playing field, and now they were ruining everything. Enter Black Ball, a gripping history and corrective in which scholar Theresa Runstedtler expertly rewrites basketball’s “Dark Ages.” Weaving together a deep knowledge of the game with incisive social analysis, Dr. Runstedtler argues that this much-maligned period was pivotal to the rise of the modern-day NBA. Black players introduced an improvisational style derived from the playground courts of their neighborhoods. They also challenged the team owners’ autocratic power, garnering higher salaries and increased agency. Their skills, style, and savvy laid the foundation for the global popularity and profitability of the league we know today.

Imagine if you could reach new levels of happiness and joy; releasing years of shame, guilt and stress from your life. Are you ready for a spiritual awakening and to start fully living life? You may be holding onto a Black Ball. After childhood bullying, debt, alcohol, gambling and drugs, business mentor Simon Lovell went on a huge journey into self-help and personal transformation, but still found himself lost after invested hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was living a double life. Finally, in 2018 he experienced a profound spiritual awakening that was captured live on Facebook, releasing 30 years of shame from a secret that he was holding deep inside. This was his 'Black Ball'. It was raw, emotional and impactful to everyone watching. Suicide is both a major mental health and national public health issue around the globe with rates rising sharply. A person dies every 40 seconds by suicide and up to 25 times as many again make an attempt to take their life. The Black Ball is Simon's journey, as well as a series of courageous stories from people around the world who have released their shame and guilt and are living happier lives through the groundbreaking Black Ball process. Simon also reveals a powerful four step process to letting go and living your best life possible. Simon writes, "It was finally when I was willing to let go of the masks I was wearing and stop playing the character of Simon Lovell that everything changed. Now I understand personal transformation at a much deeper level because I've found 'home', the real Simon Lovell. Now it's my mission to help others release their Black Ball and for them to be 100% okay with the story of their life. Are you ready to reach huge levels of happiness? This book is for anyone who is currently feeling helpless, lost and wants to boost their self-esteem with a motivational message as well as simple action steps to change. It's also for those who are currently on their personal transformation and self-help journey and want to boost their spiritual growth.

This Palgrave Pivot offers a history of and proof against claims of "buying power" and the impact this myth has had on understanding media, race, class and economics in the United States. For generations Black people have been told they have what is now said to be more than one trillion dollars of "buying power," and this book argues that commentators have misused this claim largely to blame Black communities for their own poverty based on squandered economic opportunity. This book exposes the claim as both a marketing strategy and myth, while also showing how that myth functions simultaneously as a case study for propaganda and commercial media coverage of economics. In sum, while “buying power” is indeed an economic and marketing phrase applied to any number of racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age or group of consumers, it has a specific application to Black America.

BACK ISSUE Under the guidance of Leslie Heaphy and an editorial board of leading historians, this peer-reviewed, annual book series offers new, authoritative research on all subjects related to black baseball, including the Negro major and minor leagues, teams, and players; pre-Negro League organization and play; barnstorming; segregation and integration; class, gender, and ethnicity; the business of black baseball; and the arts. Prior to Volume 9, Black Ball was published as Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal. This is a back issue of that journal.

Under the guidance of Leslie Heaphy and an editorial board of leading historians, this peer-reviewed, annual book series offers new, authoritative research on all subjects related to black baseball, including the Negro major and minor leagues, teams, and players; pre-Negro League organization and play; barnstorming; segregation and integration; class, gender, and ethnicity; the business of black baseball; and the arts.

The Giants' accomplishments took place against an historical backdrop of a change in the African-American experience. The original players from Jacksonville, Florida, joined the northward black migration during World War I. The team was named after Harry Bacharach--an Atlantic City politician running for mayor--as a way to keep his name before the city's black community. The Giants were immediately successful, and soon played the best semi-professional teams in their region, as well as the top black teams from the East and Midwest. They entered the first Negro league on the East Coast in 1923, and won the league championship twice before the decade ended. This book chronicles the Giants' pivotal role in the development of black baseball in Prohibition Era Atlantic City, and the careers of the men who made it possible.

BACK ISSUE Under the guidance of Leslie Heaphy and an editorial board of leading historians, this peer-reviewed, annual book series offers new, authoritative research on all subjects related to black baseball, including the Negro major and minor leagues, teams, and players; pre-Negro League organization and play; barnstorming; segregation and integration; class, gender, and ethnicity; the business of black baseball; and the arts. Prior to Volume 9, Black Ball was published as Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal. This is a back issue of that journal.