Black History Quiz

Referred to as the “Tiger Woods of Chess”, this Brooklyn native hailing from the island of Jamaica is the first Black person to earn the coveted International Grand Master of Chess title, an honor bestowed upon him in 1999.

a. Emory Tate                             c. Freddy Adu
b. Maurice Ashley                       d. Leon Dixon

Known to many as “Pig Foot Mary”, she was an enterprising entrepreneur who established a lucrative business in Harlem during the early 1900’s selling pigs’ feet on the corner of 135^th Street and Lenox Avenue from a makeshift food stand.  Although she couldn’t read or write, she eventually became one of Harlem’s wealthiest and shrewdest business women investing heavily in real estate and ultimately accruing assets close to $375,000.

a. Lucille Clifton                          c. Madam C. J. Walker
b. Sarah Breedlove                     d. Lillian Harris Dean

Multi-talented poet, songwriter, playwright, and actor who many regard as the “grandfather of hip-hop” and who was a regular on the television series “Brewster Place”.

a. Oscar Brown Jr.                     c. Amiri Baraka
b. Abiodun Oyawole                  d. Gil Scott Heron

Contrary to popular belief, during the 18^th and 19^th centuries slavery was just as prevalent in the North as it was in the South.  In fact, one of the largest slave trading centers in the country was located in the heart of New York City’s financial district at this particular address.

a. 45 Duane Street                      c. 55 Water Street
b. 120 Broadway                        d. 60 Wall Street

Award-winning New York Times columnist who penned the HBO documentary Journey of the African-American Athlete and who is the author of the highly acclaimed book, “Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete.”

a. Tavis Smiley                            c. Howie Evans
b. William Rhoden                       d. Dominic Carter

Battling her own bouts of depression, this licensed clinical social worker who also heads up her own public relations agency with a clientele that includes such luminaries as Janet Jackson, Russell Simmons, and Eddie Murphy, went on to publish the groundbreaking “Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting”, a work that examines mental health in the Black Community and that offers insights and solutions to assist folks challenged by depression.

a. Mary J. Blige                           c. Susan L. Taylor
b. Terrie M. Williams                   d. Joy DeGruy-Leary

Holding three of the original nine patents on the internal computer architecture that enabled external devices such as keyboards, modems, and printers to “talk” to computers, a factor which helped launch the desktop PC revolution, and later heading up the design team that created the first 1-gigahertz processor chip (CPU), this extraordinary individual has won numerous awards as an engineer, inventor, and scientist, and is one of the top engineering minds at IBM.

a. Mae Jemison                           c. Mark Dean
b. Otis Boykin                             d. Christine Darden