Born in Oakland, California, to Argee Barksdale, a Pullman porter,[1] and Desoree (née Rowe) Barksdale, Don attended nearby Berkeley High School, where the basketball coach cut him from the team for three straight years because he wanted no more than one black player.

[2] He and fellow junior college transfer Bill Putnam joined the Bruins midseason in 1942–43,[3] following the team's loss of Johnny Fryer, an Army reserve who was called to serve in World War II.

[7] Barksdale owned one of only two black-owned record stores in Los Angeles during his time in UCLA.

This had him interacting closely with performers like Etta James, Lou Rawls, and Nat King Cole.

[10][11] Barksdale, who had been playing with the Amateur Athletic Union's Oakland Bittners, was given an at-large berth from the independent bracket, but not without heavy lobbying by Fred Maggiora, a member of the Olympic Basketball Committee and a politician in Oakland, which was adjacent to Barksdale's hometown.

About eight years later, Maggiora told Barksdale that some committee members' responses to the idea of having a black Olympian was "Hell no, that will never happen."

[12] In 1951, he signed a lucrative contract with the Baltimore Bullets and entered the NBA as a 28-year-old rookie.

He would be one of the first African-Americans to play in the NBA after Nathaniel Clifton, Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd and Hank DeZonie had joined the league in 1950.

[12] After his basketball career ended he returned to radio, started his own recording label and opened two nightclubs in Oakland.

The documentary was produced by Doug Harris for Athletes United for Peace, a Berkeley-based youth sports and media organization.

[16] On February 24, 2012, Barksdale was announced as a member of the 2012 induction class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.