Pre-Civil War
What was the name of the network of secret routes and safe houses that helped enslaved people escape to freedom?
Underground Railroad
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. In what state did this announcement take place?
Texas
At just 6 years old, this brave girl integrated an all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960, walking past angry mobs daily.
Ruby Bridges
Though often overlooked in mainstream history, this Black woman became the first to run for President of the United States as a major-party candidate in 1972, paving the way for generations of women in politics.
shirley chisolm
This genre of music, born from the blues and urban Black storytelling, was co-opted by Elvis Presley and mainstreamed by white artists—despite its roots in Black struggle and rhythm.
Rock and Roll
Who was the formerly enslaved man who became a famous abolitionist orator and published the North Star newspaper?
Frederick Douglass
On what exact date did Union General Gordon Granger issue General Order No. 3, informing enslaved people in Texas of their freedom?
June 19, 1865
Known as “Black Wall Street,” what prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma was built in the early 20th century and later destroyed in a 1921 massacre?
Greenwood
In 1991, this future U.S. President chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee during the controversial hearings over Anita Hill’s testimony, ultimately allowing the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
Joe Biden
This genre, created by Black musicians as a form of intellectual and emotional resistance in the early 20th century, was later co-opted by white musicians who made fortunes without acknowledging its radical Black origins.
Jazz
What rebellion in 1831, led by an enslaved preacher, resulted in the deaths of around 60 white people and led to harsher slave laws in the South?
Nat Turner
Before it was called “Juneteenth,” what was one of the earliest known names for the celebration among freed communities in Texas?
Jubilee Day
After being denied service by white insurance firms, this organization was founded in 1898 and became the largest Black-owned insurance company in the U.S.
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company
This media mogul and entrepreneur became the first African American billionaire in 2001 after building a cable empire
Robert L. Johnson
Popularized by writers like Octavia Butler and thinkers like Alondra Nelson, this genre fuses science fiction with African cosmologies, exploring liberation beyond colonial timelines.
Afrofuturism
Originally drawn in the 1760s to settle a border dispute, what line later came to symbolize the boundary between free and slave states in the U.S.?
Mason Dixon Line
While Juneteenth began in Texas, it is now a national holiday. In what year was Juneteenth officially recognized as a federal holiday in the United States?
2021
This former Major League Baseball player broke barriers on the field and off, later co-founding a Black-owned bank in Harlem that helped fund Black-owned businesses and homeownership.
Jackie Robinson
“You can’t trust Hollywood to honor our stories,” said this iconic director after his 1992 biopic about a legendary Black leader was widely considered one of the greatest films ever made—yet was almost completely shut out by the Oscars. what was this movie
Malcolm X
Often attributed to Cajun or Creole cuisine in mainstream food culture, this cooking technique of slow-simmering aromatic vegetables in fat originated in enslaved West African communities and became a foundation of Southern cooking.
The Holy Trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery) – or accept: Roux-based cooking
What white abolitionist led an armed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859, attempting to start a slave revolt, and was later executed for treason?
John Brown
Which formerly enslaved man and Baptist minister helped preserve Juneteenth traditions by purchasing land in Houston in 1872 for the city’s first official celebration grounds?
Reverend Jack Yates
After 15 years of marches, petitions, and public pressure to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday, it was this legendary musician and activist who personally appealed to President Ronald Reagan—helping finally push the holiday across the finish line.
James Brown
This President and his administration oversaw the aftermath of a housing collapse that erased more than half of Black family wealth, yet under his leadership, no major Wall Street bankers were prosecuted, and the recovery efforts largely bypassed the communities hit hardest.
Barack Obama
An ancient hairstyle originating in Africa—especially among the Himba people of Namibia—this style has been widely adopted and reimagined in modern media as part of Viking and Norse mythology, despite zero archaeological evidence that those cultures actually wore their hair this way.
Braids