Do you know your Black History?

Some questions to test your knowledge of Black History:

1.      Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African-American woman to win this honor in 1950.   What did she win?

2.      In 1989, he was the first African-American to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later became Secretary of State. Who was he?

3.      Jackie Robinson was a star in this sport

4.      Eleanor Roosevelt supported this singer, who sang at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939? Who was she?

5.      Who was the first black heavyweight box champion (1908)?

6.      What African-American baseball star was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919?

7.      What happened to the Little Rock, Nine in 1957?

8.      Where did the 1963 Freedom March take place?

9.      Who was America’s first African-American woman senator?

10.   What “firsts” did Shirley Chisholm achieve?

Here are the answers:

1.      The Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first black woman to hold that position—and poet laureate of the State of Illinois.

2.      Colin Powell in 1989

3.      Baseball—Robinson was the first black major league baseball player

4.      Marian Anderson—after she was banned from singing in Constitution Hall; Eleanor Roosesvelt resigned from the DAR, writing, “"I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist . . . You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed."

5.      Jack Johnson

6.      Jackie Robinson

7.      President Eisenhower sent troops to escort these black students into an all-white school

8.      Washington, D.C.

9.      Carol Moseley Braun from Illinois

10.   First African-American woman to serve in the US Congress (1969-83) and the first black woman to run for President

These questions are inspired by “The Ultimate History Quiz Book” by Brian Williams, copyright 2010 by Parragon. Additional information has been provided from other sources.