Black History
Whose refusal to give up her seat on a public bus sparked a boycott of Montgomery, AL buses from 1955-1956?
Rosa Parks
Who was the first black woman to speak out publicly against slavery?
Sojourner Truth
This man was the first Black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only Black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. What is his name?
Arthur Ashe
Who is the African American New York Times bestselling author who wrote Slam, Monsters, Malcolm X, and Fallen Angels.
Walter Dean Myers
What do the letters RAP stand for in rap music?
Rhythm and Poetry
What does the acronym HBCU stand for?
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
This lady was a record breaker for her literature and women writers! She was a slave that learned to read and write from her masters, who encouraged her to write poetry. Her work was praised by the British and Americans alike during the American Revolutionary War. Who was the first African American female poet to publish a book in the United States?
Phillis Wheatley
Who founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama?
Booker T. Washington
What is the name of the current movement and social justice protest centered around the loss of lives as a result of police brutality and racially motivated violence against Black people?
Black Lives Matter
Who was the first African American to serve as the United States Secretary of State?
Colin Powell
Who was the first Black American poet to be nationally recognized for his writing?
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Fisk University, a Historically Black College and University/HBCU, was founded in 1865 in what city and state?
Nashville, Tennessee
This man was the first African American to earn a doctorate degree from Harvard. Which of these is the author who was famous for his collection of essays, "The Souls of Black Folk"?
W.E.B. DuBois
Who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and was known as the '1st Lady of the Civil Rights Movement'?
Fannie Lou Hamer
The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves during the Civil War. Who signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863?
President Abraham Lincoln
Who was the first African American to be portrayed on a U.S. postage stamp?
Booker T. Washington
Who was the first black singer to be admitted to the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York in 1955
Marian Anderson
There is only one History Black College and University/HBCU Kentucky. What is the name of this HBCU?
Kentucky State University
What was the name of the organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Who was the first woman and first African American woman to read a poem at a presidential inauguration (former President Bill Clinton’s inauguration)?
Maya Angelou
The current Champaign Police is the second African American police chief in Champaign. What is his name?
Police Chief Anthony Cobb
Which author became the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature?
Toni Morrison
She was known as the “Queen of Gospel Music.” Her first recording “Move On Up a Little Higher” sold over a million copies in 1945. What is her name?
Mahalia Jackson
What is the name of the famous Historically Black College and University/HBCU in Washington, D.C. where Dr. Charles Drew taught medicine?
Howard University
What was Malcolm X's birth name?
Malcolm Little
What magazine did John H. Johnson create in 1945?
Ebony
Who was Urbana School District #116’s first African American School Superintendent?
Dr. Preston L. Williams, Jr.
This man is the self-proclaimed “greatest boxer of all time.” He was originally named after his father, who was named after the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Marcellus Clay. What is his name?
Muhammad Ali
In the 1920s and early 1930s, this period in United States History was a burst of creativity within the African American community in the areas of art, music and literature within New York City’s Harlem.
The Harlem Renaissance
The United Negro College Fund was established in 1944 to provide financial support to students who were enrolled in what type of schools?
Historically Black Colleges and Universities/HBCU
Who was the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad?
Harriet Tubman
Who was the African-American woman that traveled to France to obtain a pilot’s license?
Bessie Coleman
What does the acronym HBCU stand for?
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Who was the first black astronaut to walk in space?
Bernard Harris, Jr.
What is the name of the African-American History Museum in Chicago, Illinois that was founded by Dr. Margaret Burroughs?
The DuSable Museum
What state has the most Historically Black Colleges and Universities/HBCUs?
Georgia
Whose autobiography is entitled "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"?
Maya Angelou
Charles Drew is responsible for which of the following?
a) Blood banks
b) Refrigerator
c) Plastic surgery
d) None of these
Blood banks
The first successful heart open-heart surgery was performed in 1893 by a physician of African American descent. Who was he?
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
What is the name of the black national anthem and who wrote it?
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” and James Weldon Johnson
Who wrote the autobiography of Malcom X?
Alex Haley
The oldest Historically Black College and University/HBCU was founded in 1837. What is the name of this school?
Cheney State University
Who won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, Germany?
Jesse Owens
Who was the first African American Nobel Peace Prize winner?
a) Martin Luther King Jr.
b) Ralph Bunche
c) Nelson Mandela
d) Albert John Lutul
Ralph Bunche
Who was the first African American millionaire?
Madam C. J. Walker
Who is the first black man to host his own television show in 1956?
Nat King Cole
How old was Langston Hughes when his poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” was published?
19
What is the name of the college that Mary McLeod Bethune founded with $1.50 in cash?
Bethune-Cookman College
What former slave published the newspaper "The North Star"?
Frederick Douglass
Who was the first African American to serve as a U.S. Senator?
a) Carol Moseley Braun
b) Edward Brooke
c) Hiram Revels
d) Blanche K. Bruce
Hiram Revels
Who invented the traffic light?
Garrett Morgan
Who was the first Black woman to win the Wimbledon Title for Tennis in 1957?
Althea Gibson
Who became the first African American female billionaire in 2004?
Oprah Winfrey
What was the first black sorority founded in 1908 at Howard University?
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
Who delivered the speech, “I Have a Dream,” in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What is the name of the movie about three African American female mathematicians at NASA who helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space?
Hidden Figures
Who is the Black man credited with officially breaking the major league color line in 1947?
Jackie Robinson
Who was born in Florence, Alabama in 1873 and is known as “Father of the Blues”?
WC Handy
This group of Black and White civil rights activists participated bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals. They tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. This group drew international attention to the civil rights movement. What is this name of this group?
Freedom Riders
What was the first black fraternity?
Alpha Phi Alpha
Who was the first Black /African American president of the United States of America?
Barak Obama
What is name of the movie about the mythical country, Wakanda, ruled by Black men and women with supernatural powers?
Black Panther
Who was the first African American female student, who at the tender age of 6 years old, integrated an elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana?
Ruby Bridges
In 1993, she became the first black to be honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature for six novels.
Toni Morrison
What was the name of the network of hiding places which helped enslaved people escape to freedom?
Underground Railroad
What is the name of the oldest historically black college for women that was founded in 1881?
Spelman