What's your B.H.I.Q.?
(Black history intelligence quotient)

By Eli Sanders
The Seattle Times

Black History Month began with historian Carter G. Woodson, who early in the last century came up with the idea for a “Negro History Week,” which he envisioned as a celebration of black history and achievement, as well as a time for education.

In 1926, with the support of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, the first “Negro History Week” was held during the second week in February. The timing was meant to honor the birthdays of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Lincoln. Over the years, the event grew in popularity, and in the early 1970s, the association (which later changed its name, replacing the word “Negro” with “Afro-American”) expanded the celebration and renamed it “Black History Month.”

Now, in keeping with Woodson’s idea of focusing on black history and education, we offer this Black History Month quiz:

1. The founder of the Nation of Islam was:
a) Elijah Muhammad.
b) Elijah Wood.
c) Ralph Ellison.

2. Thurgood Marshall was:
a) A prominent black thinker and architect of the Marshall Plan.
b) The first black Supreme Court justice.
c) A Harlem Renaissance writer.

3. Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige played with which famous band leader:
a) Benny Goodman.
b) Duke Ellington.
c) Louis Armstrong.

4. Which amendment to the Constitution guaranteed black people (and all citizens) equal protection under the law?
a) The 15th.
b) The 26th.
c) The 14th.

5. Black people, women and people ages 18 to 21 have all been kept from voting at some point in the history of the United States. In what order were these groups given the right to vote?
a) Black men, then women, then people 18 to 21.
b) People 18 to 21, then black men, then women.
c) Women, then black men, then people 18 to 21.

6. What landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision struck down the idea of “separate but equal” schools for black people and whites?
a) Plessy v. Ferguson.
b) Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kan.
c) University of California v. Bakke.

7. The incarceration rates for black people in America have long been decried as a reflection of a biased justice system. At the end of 2000, what percentage of all black males in the United States ages 25 to 29 was in prison? (For comparison, the answer is 2.9 percent for all Hispanic males in that age group, and 1.1 percent for all white males.)
a) 5.6 percent.
b) 9.7 percent.
c) 24.3 percent.

8. The holiday Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when:
a) Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation,
thus freeing slaves.
b) Word reached Texas that Lincoln had signed the Emancipation
Proclamation.
c) Lincoln declared war with the South over the issue of slavery.

9. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the first secretary-general from sub-Saharan Africa, is from what country:
a) Ghana.
b) South Africa.
c) Nigeria.

ANSWERS: 1. A; 2. B; 3. C; 4. C; 5. A; 6. B; 7. B; 8. B; 9. A.