COMING SEPTEMBER 2025!
A LIFE IN BASKETBALL
AND
ACTIVISM
This book is not just the story of a career; it is the story of a calling. Many of the stories in these pages were first shared during Black History Month or taught in Pete's civil rights and basketball courses at Emory University. They are more than memories; they are lessons and legacies. As you read, you will discover how basketball is a powerful tool for social change. You will encounter the people Pete has inspired, the communities he has uplifted, and the values he has upheld. His life reminds us that authentic leadership comes not only from titles or trophies but also from courage, conviction, and compassion.
For those who understand the cost of breaking barriers, his example reminds us that the work is never finished, and the game continues to hold the power to move us forward. This book honors a man who has long believed that pursuing justice requires the same intensity as a full-court press. It reminds us that the scoreboard does not always measure the most meaningful victories but the lives we touch along the way.
My biggest obstacle in becoming a professional basketball player did not have anything to do with racism, on or off the court. It came from within, a nagging sense of inferiority, the result of growing up as a Black kid in a segregated system. I was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, about eight miles from Washington, D.C., but about a thousand miles away in terms of segregation. There were no Black cops, no Black mailmen, no Black anything. It was an era when you were told you were inferior so much that you began to believe it. Back of the bus, upstairs at the theater, no service at restaurants. I never sat next to a white person until I was twenty-two years old.
Earl Lloyd, the first African American to play in an NBA game, on Oct. 31, 1950.