As a prelude to Black History Month, here’s a quiz to test your knowledge. Each question is multiple choice; the answers and a brief explanation, if needed, will follow the last question. Please highlight the answer you believe is correct. Good luck!
1.The enslaved woman that escaped from George Washington he tried for years to get back was named?
A. Fannie Lou Hamer
B. Ona Judge
C. Harriet Tubman
D. Harriet Jacobs
2. The event that ended Reconstruction and ushered in Jim Crow was known as?
A. The Compromise of 1877
B. Posse Comitatus
C. The 1876 Presidential Election
D. All of the above
3. The author of The Color Purple was?
A. Zora Neale Hurston
B. Toni Morrison
C. Victoria Christopher Murray
D. Alice Walker
4. On her way to Paris, Sally Hemings stopped in what city?
A. Madrid
B. Liverpool
C. Lisbon
D. London
5. How old was Emmett Till when he was lynched for “disrespecting a white woman?”
A. 12
B. 13
C. 14
D. 15
6. What Nobel Prize for Literature recently had some of her books banned in the age of Critical Race Theory?
A. Zora Neale Hurston
B. Alice Walker
C. Toni Morrison
D. bell Hooks
7. How many of the first eighteen U.S. Presidents owned enslaved people?
A. 8
B. 10
C. 12
D. 14
8. Which President ended the International Slave Trade to America, making himself and other Virginia plantation owners wealthier in the process?
A. James Madison
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Zachary Taylor
D. William Henry Harrison
9. What was the primary material used to make George Washington’s dentures?
A. Cherry wood
B. Enamel
C. Metal
D. Teeth pulled from the mouths of living enslaved people
10. What Black lawyer represented the Groveland Four?
A. Walter White
B. Constance Baker Motley
C. Thurgood Marshall
D. Vernon Jordan
11. What novel featured the character Bigger Thomas?
A. Native Son
B. To Kill a Mockingbird
C. Go Tell It On The Mountain
D. Invisible Man
12. What Was Invisible Man about?
A. The author’s struggle with homosexuality
B. The author’s struggle to achieve academic success
C. The author’s disillusionment with communism
D. The author’s failure to advance in the U.S. military.
13. What Harlem Renaissance artist has a mural, “God’s Trombones,” on a second-floor ceiling in the Fisk University administrative building?
A. Jacob Lawrence
B. Augusta Savage
C. Sargent Claude Johnson
D. Aaron Douglas
14. What President had enslaved teen boys whipped at the nailery on his Virginia plantation?
A. James Madison
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. John Quincy Adams
D. Zachary Taylor
15. Sally Hemings returned from Paris after Thomas Jefferson agreed to free their children when they came of age (21). How many of their four children reached adulthood did he release on schedule?
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 4
16. Which President owned the most enslaved people during their lifetime?
A. John Adams
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. George Washington
D. Andrew Johnson
17. What famous Black athlete became disillusioned with the Republican Party after being a delegate to the 1964 Republican National Convention?
A. Ernie Banks
B. Bob Hayes
C. Jackie Robinson
D. Ed “Too Tall” Jones
18. Who met with Coretta Scott King to show support while Martin Luther King was in a Selma jail?
A. Ralph Abernathy
B. Malcolm X
C. Huey Newton
D. Bobby Seale
19. Which participant in the Lincoln/Douglas debates wanted to end slavery?
A. Stephen Douglas
B. Abraham Lincoln
C. Both
D. Neither
20. Who talked Abraham Lincoln out of his plan to send freed slaves to Liberia or Central America?
A. Harriet Tubman
B. Frederick Douglass
C. Marcus Garvey
D. Robert E. Lee
21. How many HBCUs currently exist in the United States and U.S. Virgin Islands?
A. 66
B. 102
C. 121
D. 138
22. Who became President after being behind in both the popular and electoral college votes?
A. Rutherford B. Hayes
B. James Polk
C. Thomas Jefferson
D. George W. Bush
23. What event precipitated “whiteness,” which was an unknown concept before then?
A. The Nat Turner Rebellion
B. The Denmark Vesey Revolt
C. The Haitain Revolution
D. Bacon’s Rebellion
24. What President is suspected of having fathered at least one Black child?
A. James Madison
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Bill Clinton
D. All of the above
25. When did the first enslaved people arrive in America?
A. 1619
B. 1565
C. 1625
D. 1776
26. After which rebellion were the heads of Black people placed on pikes to prevent future revolts?
A. The Denmark Vesey Revolt
B. The Nat Turner Revolt
C. The German Coast Rebellion
D. The Gabriel Prosser Revolt
Answers:
B. Ona Judge escaped, and Washington went to great lengths to get her back until his efforts became public.
D. After the contested 1876 election, a back-room deal resulted in the Compromise of 1877, allowing Republicans to win the election if he promised to remove federal troops from the South. The following year he passed Posse Comitatus, which ensured they would never return to protect slaves.
D. Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple.
D. Sally Hemings stopped in London and was under the care of Abigail Adams. Adams found the 14-year-old Hemings more childish than Thomas Jefferson’s daughter she was supposed to be in charge of.
C. Emmett Till was 14 when he was killed.
C. Toni Morrison has seen several of her books recently banned.
D. The answer is 14.
B. Thomas Jefferson made producing domestic-bred slaves more profitable, often due to forced breeding and rape.
D. Slave’s teeth were used in making the dentures. The dentist was paid according to receipts; there’s no evidence the slaves were compensated.
C. Thurgood Marshall represented three of the Groveland Four (one was killed upon capture). They were falsely accused of rape by a white woman and her husband.
A. Native Son by Richard Wright featured Bigger Thomas
C. Invisible Man was about disillusionment with communism.
D. Aaron Douglas
B. A letter describing the beating of teens was discovered in Jefferson’s effects, but historian Edwin Betts covered it up for decades.
B. Jefferson never willingly freed any of his children when they came of age; two eventually ran off (son Beverly returned before he was ultimately freed). Two of his children were freed in Jefferson’s will, and his son Eston hadn’t yet reached 21.
B. Thomas Jefferson owned more than 600 enslaved people during his lifetime.
C. Jackie Robinson.
B. Coretta met with Malcolm X.
D. Neither Douglas nor Lincoln wanted to end slavery at the time.
B. Frederick Douglas convinced Lincoln it was a bad idea.
B. There are presently 102 HBCUs in the continental U.S. and Virgin Islands.
A. Rutherford B Hayes became President after losing the popular vote and being well behind in the Electoral College vote. He was declared the winner as a result of the Compromise of 1877.
D. Bacon’s Rebellion saw Black indentured servants unite with white indentured servants and other poor people to burn down Jamestown under Nathaniel Bacon’s leadership. Whiteness was created to divide the lower class further to make them easier to control.
D. All three President’s have been suspected of fathering at least one Black child.
B. Enslaved people were brought by the Spanish to St Augustine in 1565.
C. The 1811 German Coast Rebellion
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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