February, Black History Month, is the perfect time to brush up on your knowledge of African-American history. This test is designed to be informative and fun. Take it with a friend. The answers are below on this page. No peeking. If you get them all, consider yourself a genius. If you get 10-15, pat yourself on the back. Nine to five, hit the books tomorrow. Fewer than five, hit the books this minute.
1. This man is called "the father of black history." He started Negro History Week, which later became Black History Month. Hint: A Baltimore City elementary school is named for him.
2. In 1857, Roger B. Taney, the Maryland-born chief justice of the United States, ruled that this slave could not be free just because he had once lived in free territory.
3. Richard Pryor played Wendell Scott, the first black racing car driver, in this 1977 movie based on Scott's life.
4. Finish this line from Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech": "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged ------."
5. In 1828, this powerful African warrior king was assassinated on the orders of his two half-brothers.
6. This enterprising slave had himself mailed to freedom, from Richmond to Philadelphia.
7. A number of slave revolts took place in the first half of the 19th century. Who was hanged for leading a short-lived but bloody uprising in 1831 Virginia?
8. She was the first black to sing a major role at the Metropolitan Opera.
9. In April 1963, while jailed in a Southern city, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a now-famous, 9,000-word letter about "unjust laws." The work was titled "Letter From a --- Jail."
10. This basketball great scored an amazing 100 points in a March 1962 NBA game. Name him and his team.
11. Before she served in the U.S. House of Representatives, she was the first black woman to sit in a Southern legislature.
12. Although he changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz about a year before his death, this black nationalist leader is still known by his Black Muslim name.
13. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Roots," Alex Haley told the story of Kunta Kinte, an African ancestor of his brought to America as a slave in 1758. To which Maryland port city was the teen-age Kunta brought?
14. Of Baltimore's two historically black colleges, which is older, Coppin or Morgan?
15. Leon Day, Joe Black and Jim Gilliam, all Negro League stars, played at one time or another for this Baltimore baseball team.
16. True or false? Frederick Douglass urged black men to refuse to fight in the Civil War.
17. The Middle Passage was
a) A 50-mile section of the Underground Railroad.
b) A secret Civil War road from Richmond to Washington.
c) A widely used slave-ship route from Africa to the Americas.
d) A popular wagon trail used by blacks going from Kansas to California in the 1870s.
18. The Commodores' "Night Shift" and Diana Ross' "Missing You" were both tributes to this superstar soul singer.
19. One of the most serious federal-state clashes over public school desegregation took place in this south-central state's capital in September 1957.
20. In 1950, she became the first black poet to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a semi-autobiographical collection of verse titled "Annie Allen."
ANSWERS
1. Dr. Carter G. Woodson. The city school named for him is in Cherry Hill.
2. Dred Scott. He sued for his freedom after his owner had taken him to free territory (Illinois and northern Louisiana) and then brought him back to slave territory (Missouri).
3. "Greased Lightning."
4. " . . . by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
5. Shaka Zulu.
6. Henry "Box" Brown. The trip took 26 hours.
7. Nat Turner. He was captured nine weeks after the uprising began.
8. Marian Anderson, in Verdi's "A Masked Ball," 1955.
9. Birmingham.
10. Wilt Chamberlain. The Philadelphia Warriors.
11. Barbara Jordan of Texas.
12. Malcolm X. He changed his name after visiting Mecca, Islam's holy city.
13. Annapolis. A festival honoring him is held there every September.
14. Morgan opened in 1867, Coppin in 1900.
15. Baltimore Elite Giants
16. False. Douglass was an early and ardent crusader for the recruitment of black troops.
17. c) A widely used slave-ship route.
18. The late Marvin Gaye. The Commodores' song also honors the late singer Jackie Wilson.
19. Little Rock. The students who volunteered to desegregate the city's Central High School came to be known as the Little Rock Nine.
% 20. Gwendolyn Brooks.