From the neighborhood to the nation: The social history of midnight basketball.

Abstract

This study provides a narrative account of the phenomenon known as Midnight Basketball. It focuses upon the transformation of Midnight Basketball from a one-man basement operation to national organization and, finally, to its inclusion in President Bill Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill. It treats Midnight Basketball as a case study of a grass roots, neighborhood-based effort to confront and control a major social problem: the rising rates of violence and incarceration among young African Americans males. In addition, it also examines the growth of the program into the world of big business and national politics. This study triangulates the constructivist approach to social problems with the public arenas model and resource mobilization theory to provide a rich and detailed narrative of the developmental process of a social movement. I use the counter-factual technique to analyze the narratives for a more detailed understanding of the developmental changes within Midnight Basketball and provide a theoretical "test" of why these changes occurred. Therefore, this social history of Midnight Basketball represents a causal interpretation which is grounded both historically and temporally.