Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
As we all know, February is Black History Month. A time to observe and celebrate the enormous contributions Black Americans have made to the social fabric of this nation, and to the world in general. With that spirit in mind, I thought it might be interesting for you and your family to continue testing your collective knowledge of Black History with part 2 of our quiz that, admittedly, is a bit more challenging than last week’s offering. With that being said, let’s begin.
1. Who was the first African-American to play major league baseball in the American League?
(a) Ernie Banks
(b) Satchel Paige
(c) Jackie Robinson
(d) Larry Doby
2. Where was Malcolm X killed?
(a) Audubon Ballroom,
(b) Downtown Boston
(c) His House, Queens
(d) Massachusetts State Prison
3. Where was the first “sit-in” at a segregated lunch counter?
(a) Jackson, Mississippi
(b) Atlanta, Georgia
(c) Charleston, South Carolina
(d) Greensboro, North Carolina
4. At its height, what was the slave population in the U.S.?
(a) About 500,000
(b) About 2 Million
(c) About 1 Million
(d) About 4 million
5. Who first African-American to be elected president of the United States?
(a) Cory Booker
(b) Eric Holder
(c) Barack Hussein Obama
(d) Jesse Jackson
6. What famous African-American was the author of The Fire Next Time and Go Tell It on the Mountain?
(a) Richard Wright
(b) James Baldwin
(c) Langston Hughes
(d) Claude McKay
7. Who signed The Emancipation Act?
(a) Andrew Johnson
(b) Ulysses S. Grant
(c) James Buchanan
(d) Abraham Lincoln
8. With the 15th Amendment ratification in 1870, what did African-Americans gain in the United States?
(a) Freedom from Slavery
(b) Right to Citizenship Status
(c) Voting Rights
(d) Right to Sit Anywhere
9. Who was the first African-American to perform at the White House?
(a) B.B. King
(b) “Blind Tom” Wiggins
(c) Louis Armstrong
(d) Aretha Franklin
10. What year was the Thirteenth Amendment ratified, abolishing slavery?
(a) 1862
(b) 1865
(c) 1867
(d) 1872
11. Who was the first Black Poet Laureate?
(a) Gwendolyn Brooks
(b) Maya Angelou
(c) Rita Dove
(d) Robert Hayden
12. The first Black female author to have a play performed on Broadway?
(a) Alice Walker
(b) Lorraine Hansberry
(c) Nikki Giovanni
(d) Zora Neale Hurston
13. Who was the only African-American among the original NAACP executives?
(a) Rosa Parks
(b) Frederick Douglass
(c) Martin Luther King Jr.
(d) W.E.B. Du Bois
14. Who established the first non-indigenous settlement of Chicago?
(a) Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable
(b) Joseph Moreno
(c) Pedro Alonso Nino
(d) Sally Bayne
15. Sarah Goode was the first African-American woman to receive a patent. What did she invent?
(a) Hair Straightening System
(b) Dry-Cleaning Process
(c) Lip Stick
(d) Folding Bed
16. It was the first African-American owned company to be publicly traded on the New York Stock exchange?
(a) Famous Amos
(b) Parks Sausage Company
(c) FUBU
(d) BET Network
17. What African-American jazz legend was known to his fans simply as “Bird”?
(a) Charlie Parker
(b) John Coltrane
(c) Miles Davis
(d) Charles Mingus
18. When were the first African slaves brought to North America?
(a) 1619
(b) 1776
(c) 1793
(d) 1800
19. In October of 1966, in Oakland, California, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale organized what Black movement?
(a) NAACP
(b) The Black Panther Party
(c) Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC)
(d) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (CORE)
20. On September 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in what city?
(a) New York
(b) Los Angeles
(c) Washington, D.C.
(d) Atlanta
Answer Key:
1. Larry Doby
2. Audubon Ballroom, Manhattan
3. Greensboro, North Carolina
4. 4 million
5. Barack Hussein Obama
6. James Baldwin
7. Abraham Lincoln
8. Voting Rights
9. “Blind Tom” Wiggins
10. 1865
11. Robert Hayden
12. Lorraine Hansberry
13. W.E.B. DuBois
14. Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable
15. Folding Bed
16. BET Network
17. Charlie Parker
18. 1619
19. The Black Panther Party
20. Washington, D.C.