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Activities Biographies Key Titles Links Literature Quiz Timeline

1. The first serious uprising among slaves took place in 1739 and resulted in passage of the Negro Act, which placed restrictions on the ability of slaves in South Carolina to assemble and move freely. This uprising was:
   • The Nat Turner Rebellion
   • The Stono Rebellion
   • The Denmark Vesey conspiracy
2. Known as the "father of black history," he documented African-American stories and achievements, often ignored by historians at the time. To gather information, he used innovative research approaches, including legal records, diaries and oral histories – methods that have since been widely adopted by historians. He is the founder of the quarterly publication, "Journal of Negro History", and Negro History Week (now Black History Month) and also established the first historical society devoted exclusively to research on the black American. This historian is:
   
   • Benjamin Bannaker
   • Alain Locke
   • Carter G. Woodson
3. This amendment to the U.S. Constitution declared "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall exist within the United States". After initially being rejected by the House of Representatives, this amendment passed and was ratified in 1865, outlawing slavery. This amendment was:
   
   • The 13th Amendment
   • The 14th Amendment
   • The 15th Amendment
4. This 1896 Supreme Court case gave legal backing to the concept of "separate but equal" facilities for black Americans. The case was:
   • Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka
   • Plessy v. Ferguson
   • Powell v. Alabama
5. After her husband's assassination, she fought for 30 years to get justice for her husband's murder. An all-white jury deadlocked in the case, thereby acquitting Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist whose fingerprints were on the murder weapon. After uncovering stolen evidence and crusading for justice, she was able to see his sentencing for the murder in 1994. She also became the first woman to chair the NAACP. She is:
   • Betty Shabazz
   • Coretta Scott King
   • Myrlie Evers-Williams
6. She witnessed the East St. Louis riots in 1917 and immigrated to France just six years later. She was a singer, dancer, nightclub owner and a member of the French resistance during World War II. This popular entertainer is:
   
   • Ma Rainey
   • Bessie Smith
   • Josephine Baker
7. A gifted student and award-winning athlete, he went on to medical school and to an illustrious career as a medical researcher. He revolutionized blood storage practices by determining that plasma could be transported and preserved for longer periods of time, a discovery that had a major impact on emergency medicine. He also initiated the use of "bloodmobiles" – trucks equipped with refrigerators during World War II. This scientist was:
   
   • William Eric Dyson
   • Charles R. Drew
   • Charles Henry Turner
8. Growing up with a white Jewish mother and an African-American father, he was exposed to racism and anti-Semitism from an early age. Strongly influenced by Alice Walker's "The Color Purple", he created the enduring character of Easy Rawlins in a series that included "Devil in a Blue Dress", "A Red Death", "White Butterfly", and "Black Betty" among others. This award-winning author is:
   • Chester Himes
   • Walter Mosley
   • Langston Hughes
9. This son of an African slave and a French pirate established a trading post near Lake Michigan in 1772, thus becoming the first permanent resident of the settlement that became Chicago. He has since been officially recognized as the founder of Chicago. This founding settler is:
   • Jean Baptiste Point DuSable
   • M. Le Page du Pratz
   • Harold Washington
10. This director, screenwriter and actor was born in Atlanta but relocated to Brooklyn, where he later established a film company. Whether working with a low-budget and unknown actors or Hollywood heavyweights, his films continue to be controversial and push racial boundaries. He directed an award-winning documentary about the government's response to Hurricane Katrina and ways in which the storm's aftermath affected African-Americans. He is:
    • Gordon Parks
    • Spike Lee
    • Melvin Van Peebles
11. After an early childhood spent in Barbabos, she moved to New York City, where she excelled at school and became a teacher and later a leader in early childhood education. After a successful career as a teacher, she was elected to the New York Assembly. She then became the first black woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, where she worked for 13 years. She also was the first black woman to actively run for president. She is:
    • Ella Bully Cummings
    • C. Delores Tucker
    • Shirley Chisholm
12. This talented musician was blind at an early age; raised chickens in his childhood; and taught himself to play music. Fusing spirituals with folk music, he developed his own style of guitar playing with unusual chord progressions – partially due to a hand injury – that became his trademark. Critics consider him to be one of the most innovative and influential blues guitarists of the century. He is:
    • Ray Charles
    • Gary Davis
    • James Baldwin
13. In 1957, this group of students integrated Central High School in a southern city with the assistance of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the protection of federal troops. They are:
    • The Little Rock Nine
    • The Jena Six
    • The Freedom Riders
14. Working alternately as a laundress and a manicurist in her early life, she started pursuing her passion for aviation after hearing about French female pilots in World War I. To overcome racial barriers, she trained in France and became the first black woman to fly a plane and the first black person to earn an international flying license. Infusing her flight skills with flamboyance, she put on air shows across the United States and inspired countless students with her lectures on aviation. This daring aviatrix is:
    • Daisy Bates
    • Ida Wells-Barnett
    • Bessie Coleman
15. Dubbed by Maya Angelou as "the world's greatest living poet," he is a controversial writer, college professor and political commentator. He was chosen as New Jersey's poet laureate, but after fallout from his controversial 9/11-related poem, the position was eliminated. His work spans plays, poems, novels, essays, short stories, jazz operas and music criticism. He is:
    • James Baldwin
    • Amiri Baraka
    • Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
16. After being denied service at a Louisville, Kentucky, lunch counter, this heavyweight fighter threw his Olympic medal into the river in protest. A three-time heavyweight champion, he was stripped of his first championship title because he refused to fight in the Vietnam War. Known for his lyrical boasts, athletic grace and post-boxing philanthropy, he lit the Olympic torch for the Atlanta Olympic Games. He is:
    
    • Mohammed Ali
    • Carl Lewis
    • LeBron James
17. Born into slavery in Missouri, he worked his way through school as a farm hand and a janitor to become an agricultural scientist. Appointed by Booker T. Washington to a post at Tuskegee Institute, he determined 300 products could be derived from the peanut, a discovery that revolutionized southern agriculture and helped the South move away from dependence on the cotton industry. This scientist was:
    • William R. Harvey
    • George Washington Carver
    • Robert George Seale
18. Influenced by pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines, he was interested in music early on and played piano and sang in the church choir. His first hit was "Straighten Up and Fly Right", based on one of his father's sermons. Initially popular with his jazz trio, he shifted to mainstream pop music and achieved international acclaim along with a bit of criticism for that shift and for playing segregated clubs in the South. His TV show, which aired in 1956, was the first variety show hosted by a black person. This popular entertainer is:
    
    • Duke Ellington
    • Nat King Cole
    • Marvin Gaye
19. A mischievous child, he was forced to read the U.S. Constitution as punishment and, by high school, had it memorized. Before his appointment as the first black Supreme Court justice, he argued and won Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, challenging public school segregation, as lawyer for the NAACP. He is:
    • Ralph Bunche
    • Thurgood Marshall
    • Clarence Thomas
20. This itinerant preacher and abolitionist helped raise money for gifts for Civil War soldiers, gave rousing, inspirational anti-slavery speeches working with both black and white abolitionists and helped African-Americans relocate to the North. She is:
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Ross Tubman
    • Mae C. Jemison