who the first black basketball player in the nba
Charles Henry Chuck Cooper (September 29, 1926 â February 5, 1984) was an American professional basketball player. He and two others, Nat Sweetwater Clifton and Earl Lloyd, became the first African-American players in the NBA in 1950. Cooper was also the first African American to be drafted by a National Basketball Association (NBA) team, as the second pick of the second round by the Boston Celtics.