INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana State Library recently announced that Attucks! Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team that Awakened a City by award-winning author Phillip Hoose has been selected to represent Indiana at this year’s Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Aug. 31.
Attucks! Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team that Awakened a City details the incredible story of the 1955 Crispus Attucks Tigers of Indianapolis, who were the first all-black high school basketball team in the nation to win a state championship. Led by future NBA superstar Oscar Robertson, the Tigers, also the first state champions from Indianapolis, faced adversity in the form of segregation, racism and isolation. The book, A Kirkus Reviews Best YA Nonfiction of 2018 selection, was released in October of 2018.
The National Book Festival, which will take place at the Washington Convention Center, drew at least 200,000 attendees last year, according to Library of Congress estimates. The book will be featured in the Pavilion of States at the festival.