Grumble, grumble, “Why celebrate Black History Month?” I guess it’s because we want to, but I promise to look into celebrating Women’s History Month, LGBT History Month, Native American Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Month and Irish American Heritage Month. I have a special feeling for each of these groups and have been fortunate enough to have worked with them.
I’ve put together a 16-part quiz, so if you’re willing, let’s see how you score on African American history, which is, of course, American history. I believe our goal as Americans is equity and justice for all.
Part 1
A. Delivered “Ain’t I a Woman” speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights convention in 1851
B. Was the first Black female astronaut to fly into space
C. Was the first Southern African American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
D. Was a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad
E. Delivered her poetry at a Presidential inauguration and wrote “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
F. Was the first African American poet to win a Pulitzer Prize
G. Refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama
H. Was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress
___Rosa Parks
___Harriet Tubman
___Maya Angelou
___Shirley Chisholm
___Barbara Jordan
___Sojourner Truth
___Dr. Mae Jemison
___Gwendolyn Brooks
Part 2
A. “We are the change we’ve been waiting for.”
B. “Education is our passport to the future, for the future belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
C. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
D. “Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.”
E. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
F. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
G. “Some people want it to happen, some people wish it would happen, others make it happen.”
H. “I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.”
___Malcolm X
___Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
___W.E. B. DuBois
___Frederick Douglass
___Michael Jordan
___Barack Obama
___Jesse Owens
___Muhammad Ali
Answers
Truth A, Jemison B, Jordan C, Tubman D, Angelou E, Books F, Parks G, Chisholm H; Obama A, X B, King C, DuBois D, Douglass E, Ali F, Jordan G, Owens H.
Note: When I was president of Lee College in Baytown, Tx, the area NAACP gave me the Barbara Jordan Award for my work with inclusion. I was honored, and I treasure that award.