allow them to play, some schools refused to play them, etc. It was clear that schools with black players were not welcome.

Take 1953 #2 Seton Hall for example. They turned down the NCAA Tournament because they knew the treatment they would receive.

And then, even though black players were technically allowed, their was a gentleman's agreement, if you can call it that, that they wouldn't play more than one black player at a time. Then it went to 2, and then 3.

Utep gets the publicity for playing 5 black players in 1966, but Loyola Chicago took big steps in 1963, when they broke the informal agreement to only play 3 black players at a time. Mississippi State had to sneak out of town under cover of darkness in order to play Loyola Chicago, against a State injunction: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8741183/game-change-mississippi-state-loyola-cannot-forgotten-college-basketball

The NIT, played in then northeast, was the safe haven for teams with multiple black players. No one intends racism when they prop up the early NCAA and denigrate the early NIT, but I have personally talked with several early black players from teams who won NIT Championships (which are now, to the uninformed, considered "lesser"), and you can imagine how they feel about it.

Here's an article on 1953 NIT National Champion Seton Hall, and the treatment they received when they visited a Southern city. In any event, saying that #2 Seton Hall beating #7 St. John's is not a national championship is...uninformed, IMO:

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-02-05/sports/sp-2438_1_seton-hall

Some years, the NCAA was stronger, some years, the NIT. The fact is, both were considered national championship awarding tournaments until 1954.