Early Career

Elected (1890) to Parliament as a Liberal, the young Lloyd George soon became known as a radical and an anti-imperialist. He bitterly opposed the South African War. In 1905 he entered Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's ministry as president of the board of trade, establishing an outstanding reputation for his welfare reforms. In 1908 he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer by Herbert Asquith, later 1st earl of Oxford and Asquith. The rejection by the House of Lords of his 1909 budget, which provided for a system of social insurance partly financed by land and income taxes, led to passage of the Parliament Act of 1911, by which the Lords lost its power of veto (see Parliament).

During World War I

In 1911, Lloyd George made his famous Mansion House speech, in which he warned Germany that Britain would not tolerate interference with its international interests. After the outbreak of World War I, Lloyd George remained chancellor until 1915 when he became minister of munitions. He was then (1916) minister of war before he succeeded (Dec., 1916) in ousting Asquith and formed his own coalition government.

Lloyd George immediately reorganized the structure of the government, creating a small war cabinet of five (which when attended also by representatives of the dominions and India became the Imperial war cabinet) and forming for the first time a cabinet secretariat. His war policy was bold and aggressive, and, although he was often at odds with the military leaders, he was largely responsible for the unification of military command under Marshal Ferdinand Foch. At the Paris Peace Conference (1919), Lloyd George exercised a moderating influence on both the harsh demands of Georges Clemenceau and the idealistic proposals of Woodrow Wilson, and to a large extent he shaped the final agreement (see Versailles, Treaty of).

After the War

A general election in 1918 had given Lloyd George and his coalition a substantial majority, but he was heavily dependent on Conservative support. This fact accounts at least partially for the repressive policy he adopted in Ireland, although he finally concluded the treaty that set up (1922) the Irish Free State. In 1922 the Chanak crisis occurred, in which Lloyd George delivered an ultimatum to the Turks, who, having seized Smyrna from the Greeks, were poised to strike across the neutralized Straits zone. The Turks agreed to withdraw, but in Britain Lloyd George was accused of recklessness. The Conservatives withdrew from the coalition, and his ministry fell (1922).

Lloyd George continued to be active in Parliament and, despite the fact that he was disliked by many Liberals for his treatment of Asquith, served (1926-31) as the leader of the by-then shattered Liberal party. In 1936 he visited and was much impressed by Adolf Hitler, but he later attacked the policy of appeasing Nazi Germany. He was raised to the peerage only a few months before his death.

Earl Francis Lloyd (born April 3, 1928 in Alexandria, Virginia, US) is a retired American basketball player. He was the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association, in the 1950-51 NBA season. Three other blacks played in the same season, including Chuck Cooper.

Lloyd, a forward known for his defense, played collegiately at West Virginia State College, was selected in the ninth-round of the 1950 NBA Draft by the Washington Capitols. On October 31, 1950, Lloyd became the first African-American to play in an NBA game, against the Rochester Royals.

Lloyd led West Virginia State to two CIAA Conference and Tournament Championships in 1948 and 1949. He was named All-Conference three times (1948-50) and was All-American twice, as named by the Pittsburgh Courier (1949-50). As a senior, he averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, while leading West Virginia State to a second place finish in the CIAA Conference and Tournament Championship. In 1947-48, West Virginia State was the only undefeated team in the United States.

NBA

Lloyd played in only seven games for the Washington Capitols before the team folded on January 9, 1951. He then went into the U.S. Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, before the Syracuse Nationals picked him up on waivers. He spent six seasons with Syracuse and two with the Detroit Pistons before retiring in 1960.

Lloyd retired ranked 43rd in career scoring with 4,682 points. His best year was 1955, when he averaged 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds for Syracuse, which beat the Fort Wayne Pistons 4-3 for the NBA title. Lloyd and Jim Tucker were the first African-Americans to play on an NBA championship team.

Lloyd once said; "In 1950, basketball was like a babe in the woods; it didn't enjoy the notoriety that baseball enjoyed." Like Lloyd, Clifton and Cooper had solid but not spectacular careers.

According to Detroit News sportswriter Jerry Green, in 1965 Detroit Pistons General Manager Don Wattrick wanted to hire Lloyd as the team's head coach. It would have made Lloyd the first African-American head coach in American pro sports. Dave DeBusschere was instead named Pistons player-coach. From 1972 to 1973, Lloyd did coach the Pistons and was a scout for five seasons.

Personal

Honors

Lloyd was named to the NAIA Silver and Golden Anniversary Teams.

On December 1, 2007, the newly-constructed basketball court at T. C. Williams High School in Lloyd's home town of Alexandria, Virginia, was named in his honor. Lloyd actually attended Parker-Gray High School, as Alexandria's schools were racially-segregated at the time. T.C. Williams—the subject of the motion picture Remember the Titans—was created as a combined, desegregated school two decades later.

See also

• List of African American firsts

References

• Basketball Hall of Fame bio
• BasketballReference.com: Earl Lloyd (as coach)
• BasketballReference.com: Earl Lloyd (as player)