NCCU's 1944 basketball team

NCCU's 1944 basketball team

North Carolina Central University 's 1944 basketball team

The North Carolina Central University for Negroes basketball team faced an all-white basketball team from Duke Medical School in secret in 1944. After meeting at the Durham YMCA for clandestine prayer meetings, they planned a game for Sunday, March 2 on NCCU's campus. Except for a few students peering in through windows, no spectators attended the game. After the game, the two teams went to a dorm for refreshments. The game was not publicized in the media and was not uncovered for many years. The game is viewed as one of the first integrated sporting events to take place in the south. Many point to this game as an example for how resistance to Jim Crow laws sometimes took place outside the traditional civil rights movement.

Duke University

http://today.duke.edu/2010/04/secretgame.html

1944

Sara Moir