Reviews for Attucks! :Oscar Robertson and the basketball team that awakened a city (J/Book)
Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Hoose begins in the early 1920s, when Indianapolis's KKK-influenced school board created a separate, African Americanonly high school. By the 1950s, Crispus Attucks High had a seemingly unstoppable all-black basketball team (including future NBA great Oscar Robertson), which won two straight state titles and brought some progress to a racially divided city. Dramatic photographs, numerous sidebars, newspaper headlines, and thorough back matter enrich a thought-provoking volume. Bib., ind. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Acclaimed author Hoose (The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, 2015, etc.) returns to his home state with the true story of the all-black high school basketball team that broke the color barrier in segregated 1950s Indianapolis, anchored by one of the greatest players of all time.Recently honored with the NBA's Lifetime Achievement Award, Oscar Robertson is known for his accomplishments both as an athlete and advocate for NBA players. However, few know the story of how the Naptown basketball savant was able to lead his segregated high school to back-to-back state championships. Hoose does a brilliant job of portraying the surrounding historical context, exploring the migration of black families from the South to Indiana, showing how Jim Crow practices were just as present in the North as in the South, and describing the deep groundswell of support for basketball in Indiana. The inspiration for the book was the Big O himself, who told Hoose that the Ku Klux Klan "did something they couldn't foresee by making Attucks an all-black school. The city of Indianapolis integrated because we were winning." Could basketball have served as a pathway to racial progress within the Hoosier state? Attucks! doesn't pretend that we've outlived the racism of the American past, all the while showing readers how being grounded in one's self-worth and committed to the pursuit of excellence can have a lasting impact on a community.A powerful, awe-inspiring basketball-driven history. (biographies, sources, notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
