Black History Month Trivia - Civil Rights Heroes

What group of students was famous for challenging school segregation in the deep south?

• The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• The Black Panther Party

• The "Little Rock Nine"

Answer explanation

The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas.

Who is the person credited for launching the Montgomery bus boycott?

• Stokely Carmichael

• Rosa Parks

• Shirley Chisholm

• Malcom X

Answer explanation

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

Which lawyer (who later became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice) won the Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, making segregation in public schools illegal?

• Roy Wilkins

• Ralph Abernathy

• Thurgood Marshall

• Michelle Alexander

Answer explanation

Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice.

Name the group of students who held the first sit-ins at lunch counters to protest segregationist policies.

• The Scottsboro Boys

• The Little Rock Nine

• The Greensboro Four

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Answer explanation

The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in 1960, primarily at the "Whites Only" lunch counters Woolworth store—now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum—in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Hamilton Holmes and which other black student integrated the University of Georgia?

• James Meridith

• W.E.B. Dubois

• Michelle Obama

• Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Answer explanation

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an American civil rights activist, journalist and former foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, CNN, and the Public Broadcasting Service. Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first African-American students to attend the University of Georgia.

Falsely accused of whistling at a white woman this 14-year old boy was brutally murdered in Mississippi.

• Emmett Till

• Crispus Attucks

• Dred Scott

• Trayvon Martin

Answer explanation

Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955. His mother's decision to have a public funeral with an open casket helped make racial injustice a national issue and encouraged others to take action.

Who became the first African-American player to break Major League Baseball's unwritten rule against hiring blacks?

• Satchel Paige

• Jackie Robinson

• Willie Mays

• Hank Aaron

Answer explanation

Who were the "Freedom Riders"?

• A civil rights motorcycle gang

• Civil Rights Marchers

• Members of the KKK who attacked civil rights activists

• Students who took bus trips throughout the south to protest segregation

Answer explanation

Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals.

Who were the three young civil rights workers who were murdered in Mississipi while working to register black voters?

• The Scottsboro Boys

• Edgar Ray Killen, James Earl Ray & Byron de la Beckwith

• James Chaney, Andrew Goodman & Michael Schwerner

• Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Who was with Dr. King when he was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorainne Motel in Memphis, Tennessee?

• Jesse Jackson

• Andrew Young

• Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles

• Hosea Williams

• Maynard Jackson