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Quiz: Do you and your kids know these Black history facts?

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During Black History Month and beyond, explore many different topics of Black history trivia for kids and families with this quiz! How much do you and your kids know about Black history, and what do you need to brush up on?

Black history is American history, and talking to kids about important trailblazers and milestones helps give them a deeper and more accurate understanding of how our country came to be. There’s always more to learn for kids and adults, so let the questions below give you some starting points for further research as a family.

Take the quiz: Black history trivia for kids and families

The questions get a little bit harder as you go, but don’t worry! We’ll give you more info and a little background on each question when you check your answers, so it’ll be a great chance for your family to learn together, too.

Black history month quiz
1. Who was the most famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad?

Answer: B) Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland, and eventually escaped. However, she soon returned to Maryland to help her family find their way to freedom, too. Over the next 10 years she went on to make 19 trips into the South, rescuing over 300 other slaves, helping them escape to freedom though the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a series of secret routes and network of safe homes and hiding places that escaped slaves could use to remain hidden until they were safely up north. Tubman was never caught, and never lost a “passenger.” When the Civil War broke out, Tubman became a nurse, scout, and spy in the Union army.

2. What was the Emancipation Proclamation?

Answer: C) In 1863, nearing the third year of the Civil War, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In it, he declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Ironically, it did not technically set free any slaves in northern states—Lincoln reportedly didn’t want to alienate any slave states that were still loyal to the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed Black soldiers to fight in the Union army.

3. What were “Jim Crow” laws?

Answer: B) Jim Crow laws were in effect for an astounding 100 years, and made racial segregation (the separation of people based on race) legal. During this time, places like theaters, restaurants, waiting rooms, building entrances, and even cemeteries were segregated. Some businesses kept “Whites Only” signs posted outside. Black families couldn’t live in white neighborhoods, and Black kids couldn’t attend white schools. Communities and members of the civil rights movement worked hard to fight these laws, which eventually led to advancements like the integration of the military in 1948, integration of schools in 1954, the 1964 Civil Rights Act to end segregation, and the Voting Rights Act to protect minorities’ right to vote.

4. What is Ruby Bridges famous for?

Answer: A) Ruby Bridges was 6 years old when she was the first Black student to attend a previously all-white school in New Orleans in 1960, after schools in the South were ordered to desegregate. Even though the school was in her own neighborhood, she had to be escorted to and from school by U.S. marshals and had no other students in her classroom, because a lot of white people were angry about the school becoming integrated. (You can learn more about her experience and find great questions to discuss with your kids about the U.S.’s history of segregation in our explainer for kids.)

5. What does the phrase “separate but equal” refer to?

Answer: B) The famous court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 legally protected segregation by claiming that as long as racially segregated things like hospitals, services, schools, and transportation were "separate but equal," they didn’t violate any constitutional rights. The idea was, it was fine to separate people based on race as long as the facilities provided to everyone were the same. In reality though, segregated facilities were not even remotely equal. For example, Black schools were grossly underfunded compared to white schools, often having to use outdated discarded textbooks—sometimes in schools with no toilets, desks, or running water. But since the phrase wasn’t technically a law, enforcing the requirement that facilities needed to be equal was next to impossible. "Separate but equal" was just a disguise for racism.

6. Where was “Black Wall Street” located?
Answer: B) “Black Wall Street” was the nickname of the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, that flourished with Black-owned businesses in the early 20th century. Since white business owners in Tulsa often refused to serve Black customers, local Black residents decided to open their own businesses and institutions, including a theater, a newspaper, a hospital, a hotel, a library, law offices, schools, and more. In 1921, white rioters destroyed the neighborhood with fires, killing hundreds of people—but Black residents worked together to rebuild the area and opened 80 businesses in 1922.

 

7. In what year did interracial marriage become legal in all 50 states, thanks to Mildred and Richard Loving’s case?
Answer: C) In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that interracial marriage could no longer be banned by state or local governments. Years before, Mildred and Richard Loving had been arrested in the middle of the night in Virginia for living in an interracial marriage. Mildred decided to take action and write a letter to an elected official, and her case ended up in the Supreme Court.
8. Who was the teenager known as the first African American to refuse to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama (before Rosa Parks’ more famous refusal)?
Answer: C) Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she refused to move from her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery in March 1955. She was arrested and jailed for her action that day, and ended up challenging the segregation law in court along with three other women. However, Rosa Parks was the one who became an icon because she was already well-respected and was chosen by civil rights organizers to be the face of the campaign.
9. Which inventor called himself the “Black Edison” and came up with the modern three-signal traffic light and an early version of a gas mask?
Answer: A) Garret Morgan created many inventions in his lifetime. In 1912 he patented a “Breathing Device” to help firefighters breathe fresh air. In 1922 he patented the first traffic light to have a third “caution” signal—the yellow light that we use today. General Electric installed his traffic light model in cities across the country, making driving safer for everyone!
10. Which group of young people, including Marion Barry, John Lewis, Diane Nash, and others, played a big part in the Freedom Rides (a desegregation campaign) and the Mississippi Freedom Summer (a voter registration drive)?
Answer: B) SNCC was the student group founded in 1960 that worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr., the SCLC, the NAACP, and other groups and leaders fighting for civil rights in the South in the 1960s. SNCC focused on organizing peaceful, direct action protests, and were met with violence from white supremacists. Three young SNCC members were killed by the Ku Klux Klan during their efforts to get Black citizens registered to vote in Mississippi.
11. Who was the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. Senator?
Answer: B) Carol Moseley Braun was the first African American woman to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. She served from 1993 to 1999, representing Illinois. Kamala Harris was the second Black woman Senator. There have been 9 Black men in the U.S. Senate—the first was Hiram Rhodes Revels in 1870, and the most recently elected was Raphael Warnock who just took office in 2021.
12. Which famous speech did Sojourner Truth deliver in 1851?
Answer: A) Sojourner Truth, who was born enslaved but was emancipated under New York law, gave the “Ar’nt I a woman?” (“Ain’t I a woman?”) speech at a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, to advocate for Black women’s rights. Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery around age 20, delivered “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?” in 1852, reminding his audience that as the nation celebrated Independence Day, millions of people remained enslaved. Lucy Stanton, who was probably the first African American woman to complete a four-year college education, delivered “A plea for the oppressed” at a commencement address in 1850, urging other female students to join the anti-slavery movement.

Also, check out these Black history scripts for parents:

Check out our other history trivia quizzes for families

    Joanna Eng is a staff writer and digital content specialist at ParentsTogether. She lives with her wife and two kids in New York, where she loves to hike, try new foods, and check out way too many books from the library.

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