Bubba Ephriam

“Roberts has captured the essence and soul of the dying days of segregation and the grudging transition to integration in the 1950s as it played out in Pecos, Texas, around the Lone Star state, and throughout the country. Caught in the middle is modest, Black, teenaged basketball phenom Iria “Bubba” Ephriam, unaware of the often-uncredited historic role he would play. Ephriam’s previously untold story is meticulously researched, and while Bubba Ephriam has a sports theme, it’s really a highly inspirational tale of history, family, faith, and community.”

—Michael Hurd, historian and author, Thursday Night Lights: The Story of Black High School Football in Texas

“I am guessing, dear reader, that you’re familiar with Judge Roy Bean, the legendary law west of the Pecos. However, I’m guessing you may not know Iria Ephriam, a young man who decades later made his mark on a different sort of court west of the Pecos. A basketball star in the mid-1950s for the Pecos Eagles in far West Texas, Ephraim—known his entire life as ‘Bubba’—was the first African American to participate in the Texas state high school basketball tournament in Austin. A dusty, little town in far West Texas might seem an unlikely place for civil rights history to be made, but made it was. In his fascinating and well-researched account of the trail Bubba Ephraim blazed from Pecos to Austin and beyond, Garner Roberts tells a story that’s largely unknown—a story worth telling.”

—Joe Holley, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Houston Chronicle, author of Slingin’ Sam

“A skillful and thought-provoking account of the dark and angry days of desegregation, viewed through the eyes of a Black West Texas teenager who overcame it all to become a legendary basketball player in a previously all-White world. This is an important, fascinating, and unforgettable tale.”

—Carlton Stowers, member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame

“Garner Roberts deals with racial politics, ugly discrimination, and heroic personal triumph in relating a remarkable, little-known Texas high school sports story and its lasting impact and influence.”

—Glenn Dromgoole, author of A Small Town in Texas

“Bubba Ephriam: Black Texas Basketball Trailblazer is a powerful book of history about a young man who came through his young life with several struggles from segregation into integration, but he had hope and made a commitment to succeed despite the odds against him. This book is centered around civil rights and the struggle for Black equality.”

—Andrew L. Penns, pastor and Black historian