Sample pickIn 1879 Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first African American to graduate from an American school of what?
Black History Month Trivia Questions, With Every Answer Sourced: how it works
A question is already on the card. Read it aloud, tap the choice the room settles on, then press Check answer for the right one and a line on why. These 153 Black History Month trivia questions come in six rounds, for a classroom, a church hall, a library program or a staff lunch in February.
Run it as six rounds
Press Topic and pick a round: Leaders and the movement (40 questions), Famous firsts (26), Inventors and scientists (24), Court cases and laws (20), Writers, artists and musicians (26) or Sport (17). The first round opens with the month itself: who launched Negro History Week in 1926, why it sat in the second week of February, and which president first recognized the month.
Morning announcement, program night or scored quiz
For a morning announcement, open Question of the day: one question, the same for everyone. For a program night, split into teams, stay in Practice mode and let each table talk before you tap. The reason shows under the answer with a link to its source. For a score, press Exam mode, then Start the exam: 20 questions, marked topic by topic. Print question sheet and Print answer key put a round on paper.
Tips
Read the line under the answer aloud. Bessie Coleman earned her pilot's license in France because American flight schools would not admit her.
Playing with younger students? Start with Leaders and the movement, which holds 8 of the 22 easy questions.
Wrong answers wait under Missed. Run them again at the end of the month.
Questions and answers
Who are these questions for?
Adults and students from about middle school up. The set is written for a mixed room and is clean throughout. It asks what people built, wrote, won and changed: Harriet Tubman's trips back to Maryland, Lewis Latimer's carbon filament, the ruling in Loving v. Virginia, Alvin Ailey's dance company. Assassinations, lynchings and bombings are not turned into quiz prompts.
Why are some famous names missing?
Living people are left out, both as answers and as wrong choices, so the set stops short of several recent firsts in politics, space, film and sport. A fact about a living person can change, and a printed answer key cannot. Records that can still be broken are left out for the same reason.
How do I know the answers are right?
Each one was checked on September 19, 2026 by reading the sentence that states it. Six were checked against National Archives pages for documents such as the Emancipation Proclamation, and the rest against Wikipedia articles. The source is linked under every answer. Where an article hedged or historians dispute a claim, the question was narrowed or dropped.
The 1965 voting rights marches to Montgomery set out across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from which Alabama city?Wikipedia: Selma to Montgomery marches
The 54th Massachusetts, a Black regiment of the Civil War, won acclaim in July 1863 for leading an assault on which fort?Wikipedia: 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
Black History Month was first proposed in 1969 by Black educators and students at which Ohio university?Wikipedia: Black History Month
Booker T. Washington was the first leader of which Alabama school, which opened in 1881?Wikipedia: Booker T. Washington
Ella Baker organized the 1960 conference at Shaw University where students founded which civil rights group?Wikipedia: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Fannie Lou Hamer co-founded which party, which challenged Mississippi's all-white delegation at the 1964 Democratic convention?Wikipedia: Fannie Lou Hamer
Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and then made about 13 trips back to which state to rescue others?Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman guided enslaved people to freedom along which secret network?Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman
In 1862 Robert Smalls freed himself, his crew and their families by sailing what past the guns of Charleston harbor?Wikipedia: Robert Smalls
In 1871 a student choir from a Nashville university set out on tour to raise funds for the school. What is the choir called?Wikipedia: Fisk Jubilee Singers
In 1925 A. Philip Randolph organized which union of railroad workers?Wikipedia: A. Philip Randolph
In 1957 nine Black students enrolled at the all-white Central High School in which city?Wikipedia: Little Rock Nine
In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a famous open letter from a jail cell in which Alabama city?Wikipedia: Letter from Birmingham Jail
In February 1960 four college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in which North Carolina city?Wikipedia: Greensboro sit-ins
In which year did Juneteenth become a federal holiday in the United States?Wikipedia: Juneteenth
In which year was Martin Luther King Jr. awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?Wikipedia: Martin Luther King Jr.
The journalist Ida B. Wells was co-owner of a newspaper, the Free Speech, in which Tennessee city?Wikipedia: Ida B. Wells
Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when a Union general arrived in which Texas city to enforce the end of slavery?Wikipedia: Juneteenth
Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from which historically Black college for men in Atlanta?Wikipedia: Martin Luther King Jr.
Mary McLeod Bethune opened a school for Black girls in 1904 in which Florida city?Wikipedia: Mary McLeod Bethune
The Montgomery bus boycott began in December 1955. About how long did it last?Wikipedia: Montgomery bus boycott
Negro History Week was set in the second week of February because it held the birthdays of which two men?Wikipedia: Black History Month
On the Underground Railroad, what were the guides who led people north called?Wikipedia: Underground Railroad
Sojourner Truth's best-known speech, given at a women's convention in Ohio in 1851, is remembered by which title?Wikipedia: Sojourner Truth
W. E. B. Du Bois was the founding editor of the NAACP's official magazine in 1910. What is it called?Wikipedia: The Crisis
What did Frederick Douglass call the abolitionist newspaper he started in Rochester, New York, in 1847?Wikipedia: Frederick Douglass
What did the Freedom Riders of 1961 ride through the South to test a ban on segregated travel?Wikipedia: Freedom Riders
What do the letters HBCU stand for?Wikipedia: Historically black colleges and universities
What nickname is given to the all-Black US Army regiments formed in 1866 to serve on the frontier?Wikipedia: Buffalo Soldier
What was the Great Migration?Wikipedia: Great Migration (African American)
Which 1903 book of essays by W. E. B. Du Bois says that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line?Wikipedia: W. E. B. Du Bois
Which civil rights organization was founded in 1909, with W. E. B. Du Bois among its founders?Wikipedia: NAACP
Which future congressman was the youngest of the "Big Six" leaders who organized the 1963 March on Washington?Wikipedia: John Lewis
Which historian launched Negro History Week in 1926, the forerunner of Black History Month?Wikipedia: Black History Month
Which newspaper, founded by Robert S. Abbott in 1905, urged Black Southerners to move north?Wikipedia: The Chicago Defender
Which organization did Mary McLeod Bethune found in 1935?Wikipedia: Mary McLeod Bethune
Which president was the first to recognize Black History Month, during the 1976 bicentennial?Wikipedia: Black History Month
Which university in Washington, D.C., founded in 1867, is named after a Union general who led the Freedmen's Bureau?Wikipedia: Howard University
Who led the National Council of Negro Women as its president for 40 years?Wikipedia: Dorothy Height
Who was the principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington?Wikipedia: Bayard Rustin
Famous firsts 26
Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to hold a pilot's license, had to go to which country to earn it?Wikipedia: Bessie Coleman
In 1837 James McCune Smith became the first African American to earn a medical degree. In which Scottish city did he study?Wikipedia: James McCune Smith
In 1864 Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman to do what?Wikipedia: Rebecca Lee Crumpler
In 1870 Hiram Revels became the first African American to serve in the US Senate. Which state did he represent?Wikipedia: Hiram R. Revels
In 1876 Edward Bouchet became the first African American to earn a PhD from an American university. Which university?Wikipedia: Edward Bouchet
In 1879 Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first African American to graduate from an American school of what?Wikipedia: Mary Eliza Mahoney
In 1903 Maggie L. Walker became the first African American woman to charter what?Wikipedia: Maggie L. Walker
In 1907 Alain Locke, later a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance, became the first African American to win which award?Wikipedia: Alain LeRoy Locke
In 1940 Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the first African American to reach which rank in the US Army?Wikipedia: Benjamin O. Davis Sr.
In 1940 who became the first African American to win an Academy Award?Wikipedia: Hattie McDaniel
In 1950 who became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize?Wikipedia: Gwendolyn Brooks
In 1950 who became the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize?Wikipedia: Ralph Bunche
In 1964 who became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor?Wikipedia: Sidney Poitier
In 1966 Constance Baker Motley became the first African American woman to hold which post?Wikipedia: Constance Baker Motley
In 1966 Edward Brooke became the first African American elected to the US Senate by popular vote. Which state elected him?Wikipedia: Edward Brooke
In 1966 Robert C. Weaver became the first African American to hold which kind of post?Wikipedia: Robert C. Weaver
In 1976 Barbara Jordan of Texas became the first African American, and the first woman, to give which speech?Wikipedia: Barbara Jordan
In 1993 which novelist became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?Wikipedia: Toni Morrison
In December 1872 P. B. S. Pinchback, a former Union Army officer, became acting governor of which state?Wikipedia: P. B. S. Pinchback
Madam C. J. Walker, often called the first self-made woman millionaire in America, made her fortune selling what?Wikipedia: Madam C. J. Walker
Matthew Henson is best known for which feat of exploration in 1909?Wikipedia: Matthew Henson
Phillis Wheatley, whose book came out in 1773, is considered the first African American author to publish a book of what?Wikipedia: Phillis Wheatley
The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II were the first African American what?Wikipedia: Tuskegee Airmen
W. E. B. Du Bois was the first African American to earn a doctorate from which university?Wikipedia: W. E. B. Du Bois
Who became the first Black woman elected to the US Congress, in 1968?Wikipedia: Shirley Chisholm
Who was the first African American to serve in the US House of Representatives, seated in 1870?Wikipedia: Joseph Rainey
Inventors and scientists 24
Alexander Miles was awarded a patent in 1887 for a mechanism that made which machine safer?Wikipedia: Alexander Miles
Benjamin Banneker, a largely self-taught astronomer, became known for assisting with a 1791 survey of the borders of what?Wikipedia: Benjamin Banneker
The biologist Ernest Everett Just is best known for his studies of what?Wikipedia: Ernest Everett Just
The chemist Alice Ball's work produced the first effective treatment for which disease?Wikipedia: Alice Ball
The chemist Percy Julian was a pioneer in making medicinal drugs out of what?Wikipedia: Percy Lavon Julian
Dr. Charles Drew's research made it possible to store what for later use?Wikipedia: Charles R. Drew
Dr. Patricia Bath developed a laser probe in the 1980s that made surgery safer for which eye problem?Wikipedia: Patricia Bath
Elijah McCoy's best-known invention of 1872 let steam engines do what without stopping?Wikipedia: Elijah McCoy
Frederick McKinley Jones designed a portable unit in the late 1930s that let trucks carry what?Wikipedia: Frederick McKinley Jones
Garrett Morgan's other famous invention was put to use in a 1916 tunnel rescue under Lake Erie. What was it?Wikipedia: Garrett Morgan
George Washington Carver urged farmers to alternate cotton with legumes such as cowpeas. What do those crops put back into the soil?Wikipedia: George Washington Carver
Granville Woods patented a telegraph system in 1887 that let people send messages to and from what?Wikipedia: Granville Woods
In 1821 Thomas L. Jennings became the first African American to be granted a US patent. What was it for?Wikipedia: Thomas L. Jennings
In 1893 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed one of the first successful operations on which part of the body?Wikipedia: Daniel Hale Williams
In 1923 Garrett Morgan designed a hand-cranked version of which road safety device, after he saw a crash at an intersection?Wikipedia: Garrett Morgan
In 1949 Dorothy Vaughan became the first African American woman to hold which job at NASA's forerunner agency?Wikipedia: Dorothy Vaughan
In 1958 Mary Jackson became NASA's first Black woman to hold which job?Wikipedia: Mary Jackson (engineer)
In 1966 Marie Van Brittan Brown, a nurse in Queens, New York, invented an early version of what?Wikipedia: Marie Van Brittan Brown and Albert L. Brown
Jan Matzeliger's machine of 1883 automated the hardest hand job in making what?Wikipedia: Jan Ernst Matzeliger
Katherine Johnson's work at NASA is remembered for what?Wikipedia: Katherine Johnson
Lewis Latimer invented an improved process for making which part of the electric light bulb?Wikipedia: Lewis Howard Latimer
Norbert Rillieux's multiple-effect evaporator, patented in 1843, made it safer for workers to refine what?Wikipedia: Norbert Rillieux
Otis Boykin's electronic control devices found their way into which life-saving medical device?Wikipedia: Otis Boykin
Sarah Boone received a patent in 1892 for improvements to which household item?Wikipedia: Sarah Boone
Court cases and laws 20
The Board of Education named in Brown v. Board of Education ran the schools of which city?Wikipedia: Brown v. Board of Education
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and what else?Wikipedia: Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, says that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of what?Wikipedia: Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
In 1941 Executive Order 8802 banned discrimination in which part of American life?Wikipedia: Executive Order 8802
In 1948 President Truman signed Executive Order 9981. What did it do?National Archives: Executive Order 9981
In Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948, the Supreme Court said that courts could not enforce what?Wikipedia: Shelley v. Kraemer
In which 1857 case did the Supreme Court rule that Black Americans could not be citizens of the United States?Wikipedia: Dred Scott v. Sandford
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday on which day?Wikipedia: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
To which places did the Emancipation Proclamation apply?National Archives: Emancipation Proclamation
Two titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 are commonly known by which name?Wikipedia: Civil Rights Act of 1968
Which 1956 federal case ended segregated seating on the buses of Montgomery, Alabama?Wikipedia: Browder v. Gayle
Which 1965 law outlawed the literacy tests that had been used to keep Black citizens from voting?National Archives: Voting Rights Act
Which 1967 Supreme Court ruling struck down state laws that banned marriage between people of different races?Wikipedia: Loving v. Virginia
Which agency did Congress create in 1865 to help formerly enslaved people with food, schools and work contracts?Wikipedia: Freedmen's Bureau
Which amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States?National Archives: 13th Amendment to the US Constitution
Which amendment, ratified in 1868, made everyone born or naturalized in the United States a citizen?National Archives: 14th Amendment to the US Constitution
Which dean of Howard University's law school trained Thurgood Marshall and became the first special counsel of the NAACP?Wikipedia: Charles Hamilton Houston
Which justice, the only one to dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, wrote that the Constitution "is color-blind"?Wikipedia: Plessy v. Ferguson
Which phrase sums up the doctrine that the Supreme Court upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896?Wikipedia: Plessy v. Ferguson
Which president issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863?National Archives: Emancipation Proclamation
Writers, artists and musicians 26
The alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, a founder of bebop, was known by which nickname?Wikipedia: Charlie Parker
Alvin Ailey founded a famous company in 1958 for which art form?Wikipedia: Alvin Ailey
Arturo Schomburg's collection of books, art and papers on Black history became a famous research center in which neighborhood?Wikipedia: Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
Duke Ellington led his orchestra for about fifty years from which instrument?Wikipedia: Duke Ellington
Frederick Douglass became famous in 1845 when he published what?Wikipedia: Frederick Douglass
The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s is named after a neighborhood in which city?Wikipedia: Harlem Renaissance
Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first African American painter to win international acclaim, spent most of his career in which country?Wikipedia: Henry Ossawa Tanner
In 1939 the singer Marian Anderson was refused a concert hall in Washington because of her race. Where did she sing instead?Wikipedia: Marian Anderson
Jazz grew up in the Black communities of which city around the start of the 1900s?Wikipedia: Jazz
Mahalia Jackson is remembered as one of the greatest singers of which kind of music?Wikipedia: Mahalia Jackson
Maya Angelou took the title "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" from a poem called "Sympathy". Who wrote it?Wikipedia: Paul Laurence Dunbar
The painter Jacob Lawrence won national recognition at the age of 23 with a series of 60 panels about what?Wikipedia: Jacob Lawrence
Richard Wright published which novel in 1940, five years before his memoir "Black Boy"?Wikipedia: Richard Wright (author)
Scott Joplin was called the king of which kind of music?Wikipedia: Scott Joplin
The sculptor Augusta Savage was a teacher and leader in which movement?Wikipedia: Augusta Savage
The singer and dancer Josephine Baker, born in St. Louis, worked for which cause during World War II?Wikipedia: Josephine Baker
Which 1969 autobiography by Maya Angelou tells the story of her childhood?Wikipedia: Maya Angelou
Which composer and bandleader called himself the Father of the Blues?Wikipedia: W. C. Handy
Which Harlem Renaissance poet's signature poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", was first published in 1921?Wikipedia: Langston Hughes
Which jazz singer was known as the First Lady of Song?Wikipedia: Ella Fitzgerald
Which Ralph Ellison novel won the National Book Award in 1953?Wikipedia: Ralph Ellison
Which singer, who died in 2018, was known as the Queen of Soul?Wikipedia: Aretha Franklin
Which song, written by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother, is often called the Black national anthem?Wikipedia: Lift Every Voice and Sing
Which writer's first novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountain", came out in 1953?Wikipedia: James Baldwin
With which 1959 play did Lorraine Hansberry become the first African American woman to have a play performed on Broadway?Wikipedia: Lorraine Hansberry
Zora Neale Hurston, a writer of the Harlem Renaissance, published which novel in 1937?Wikipedia: Zora Neale Hurston
Sport 17
At the 1948 London Olympics, Alice Coachman became the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. In which event?Wikipedia: Alice Coachman
At which Olympic Games did Muhammad Ali light the flame at the opening of the Games?Wikipedia: Muhammad Ali
In 1908 Jack Johnson became the first Black world heavyweight champion in which sport?Wikipedia: Jack Johnson
In 1908 John Baxter Taylor Jr. became the first African American to win an Olympic gold medal. In which kind of event?Wikipedia: John Taylor (relay runner)
In 1921 Fritz Pollard became the first African American head coach in which professional sport?Wikipedia: Fritz Pollard
In 1924 DeHart Hubbard became the first African American to win an individual Olympic gold medal. In which event?Wikipedia: DeHart Hubbard
In 1956 Althea Gibson became the first Black player to win a Grand Slam title in which sport?Wikipedia: Althea Gibson
In 1966 Bill Russell became the first Black head coach in top-level American professional basketball. What else was unusual about the job?Wikipedia: Bill Russell
In 1974 Hank Aaron passed whose career home run total, which had stood for almost four decades?Wikipedia: Hank Aaron
In 1975 Arthur Ashe became the first Black man to win the singles title at which tennis tournament?Wikipedia: Arthur Ashe
In 1997 professional baseball retired Jackie Robinson's uniform number for every one of its top-level teams. What number was it?Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson
In which year did Jackie Robinson break the color line in top-level professional baseball?Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson
Jesse Owens set a long jump world record in 1935. For how long did it stand?Wikipedia: Jesse Owens
The jockey Isaac Murphy won which famous horse race three times, in 1884, 1890 and 1891?Wikipedia: Isaac Burns Murphy
Major Taylor became a world champion in 1899 in which sport?Wikipedia: Major Taylor
Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay in which Kentucky city?Wikipedia: Muhammad Ali
Wilma Rudolph overcame childhood polio to win three gold medals at which Olympic Games?Wikipedia: Wilma Rudolph
How this list was compiled: Written for this site by the editors; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer was checked on 2026-09-19 against the source named and linked beside the question: a US National Archives milestone document page (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents) for several of the laws, and the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) for the rest. The page text was fetched on 2026-09-19 and the sentence that states the fact was read before the question was kept; every extra claim in an explanation was checked the same way. Left out on purpose: living people, as answers or as wrong choices, which is why the set stops short of several recent firsts; records that can still be broken; and the names of films, TV shows, leagues, teams and brands. Killings and attacks on people are not used as prompts. Questions were dropped when the article hedged or when historians dispute the claim. No question repeats one in another trivia set on this site. Levels are an editor's judgment: easy is common knowledge from school, hard will stump most adults. Licence: own work