Important People

Question 1

Samuel Adams

Answer 1

American Revolutionary War leader who helped to organize the Sons of Liberty. Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Question 2

Susan B. Anthony

Answer 2

Women’s rights leader from when she was thirty-one to her death. Most active for women’s suffrage, but also worked for women’s property rights, rights of married women, temperance, and abolition.

Question 3

Osama bin laden

Answer 3

Leader of al-Qaeda terrorist networked; directed September 11, 2001 attacked against World Trade Center and Pentagon; killed in 2011.

Question 4

John Brown

Answer 4

Extreme abolitionist who believed in use of violence to promote his cause. His antislavery group killed pro-slavery settlers at the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre; his raid of Harper’s Ferry resulted in his trial and execution.

Question 5

Andrew Carnegie

Answer 5

Industrialist and philanthropist who built Carnegie Steel Company. In an article, The Gospel of Wealth, he defended Social Darwinism, but also stated that the rich had a duty to help the poor and improve society in areas they deemed important.

Question 6

Rachel Carson

Answer 6

Writer, scientists, and environmentalist whose book, Silent Spring, identified the hazards of agricultural pesticides. Inspired the environmental movement and legislation.

Question 7

Fidel Castro

Answer 7

Won Cuban revolution against dictator Batista; leader of Cuba; limited civil liberties, and nationalized industries. Allied with Soviet Union in the Cuban Missile Crists.

Question 8

Cesar Chavez

Answer 8

Latino leader of California farm workers. Organized the United Farm Workers (UFW) to help migrant farm workers gain better pay and working conditions; used nonviolent tactics, boycotts, hunger strikes.

Question 9

Winston Churchill

Answer 9

Prime minister of Great Britain during WWII. Made the famous “iron curtain” term regarding the USSR.

Question 10

Eugene V. Debs

Answer 10

Union organizer and Socialist presidential candidate in every election from the 1890’s until WWI.

Question 11

Frederick Douglass

Answer 11

Former slave, leading abolitionist, writer, orator; supported women’s rights. Wrote his Autobiography; founded The North Star, an abolitionist newspaper.

Question 12

W.E.B. Du Bois

Answer 12

African American civil rights leader, historian, writer, and sociologist. Co-founder of Niagara Movement and the NAACP.

Question 13

Henry Ford

Answer 13

Industrialist who owned Ford Motor Company. His innovative production methods reduced the cost of producing cars, making it possible for the average person to own an automobile.

Question 14

Benjamin Franklin

Answer 14

Philadelphia statesman, diplomat, scientists, and writer in revolutionary period; drafted the 1754 Albany Plan of Union. Helped persuade France to sign the 1778 Treaty of Alliance against England and helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris of 1783, ending the American Revolution.

Question 15

Alexander Hamilton

Answer 15

New York delegate at Constitutional Convention who worked for a strong central government. Wrote 51 of The Federalist Papers supporting the ratification of the Constitution. First secretary of the treasury; promoted U.S. economic development.

Question 16

Langston Hughes

Answer 16

An influential port, playwright, and novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. Works celebrated hope, pride, and cultural heritage of working class African Americans while protesting Jim Crow and segregation.

Question 17

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Answer 17

Civil rights who advocated civil obedience and nonviolent demonstrations to achieve change. Founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference, leg the Montgomery bus boycott, and the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march. Gave the “I Have a Dream” speech; won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Question 18

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

Answer 18

Explorers who led the 1804-1806 expedition to survey lands included in the Louisiana Purchase; documented the land, plants, animals, and other natural resources from Missouri to Oregon.

Question 19

John Locke

Answer 19

British Enlightenment writer whose ideas influenced the Declaration of Independence, state constitution, and the United States Constitution. Believed that people are born free with certain natural rights, including the rights to life, liberty, and property, and must consent to be governed.

Question 20

Malcolm X

Answer 20

Leader of the 1960’s Black Power movement; assassinated in 1965.

Question 21

John Marshall

Answer 21

Chief Justice of the United States. Established authority of the Supreme Court and strengthened power of federal government in many cases. First states the right of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison.

Question 22

Joseph R. McCarthy

Answer 22

Republican senator of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s who led a campaign to root out suspected communists in American life. The term McCarthyism came to be associated with an era of government investigation of the private lives of many in public service and in the entertainment industry.

Question 23

Baron de Montesquieu

Answer 23

French Enlightenment philosopher whose influence is seen in the separation of powers and checks and balances provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

Question 24

Robert Oppenheimer

Answer 24

Physicist who led the American effort to build the first atomic bomb.

Question 25

Thomas Paine

Answer 25

English-born writer and political philosopher whose influential pamphlet Common Sense pressed for independence from Great Britain.

Question 26

Rosa Parks

Answer 26

African American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat to a white person led to the Montgomery, Alabama, but boycott and helped launch the civil rights movement.

Question 27

Jacob Riis

Answer 27

Journalist, photographer, and social reformer of the Progressive Era. Used writings and photographs to show the need for better housing for the poor, such as in his 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives.

Question 28

John D. Rockefeller

Answer 28

Industrialist and philanthropist. Founder of the Standard Oil Company.

Question 29

Eleanor Roosevelt

Answer 29

Early and long-time activist for rights for African Americans and women during the New Deal as the First Lady. Played a key role in creation of United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and heading the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Question 30

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Answer 30

French Enlightenment philosopher. Influenced the Declaration of Independence with his arguments in support of government by the consent of the governed.

Question 31

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

Answer 31

Italian immigrants and anarchists executed for armed robbery and murder at the height of the anti-radical, anti-immigrant feeling of the 1920’s.

Question 32

Upton Sinclair

Answer 32

Muckraking journalist of the Progressive Era. Influenced the passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act with his novel The Jungle, which deals with the exploitation of the poor and the factory conditions that led to contaminated meat.

Question 33

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Answer 33

Writer whose emotional, best-selling novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, focused attention on slavery and contributed to start of the Civil War.

Question 34

Nat Turner

Answer 34

Enslaved African American who led consequential slave rebellion in 1831, killing 55 Virginians; resulted in 200 African Americans kills by vigilante mobs and stricter slave codes.

Question 35

Voltaire

Answer 35

French Enlightenment philosopher who influenced framers of the Constitution. Wrote against religious intolerance and persecution.

Question 36

Booker T. Washington

Answer 36

African American educator, author, and leader. Founded Tuskegee Institute and wrote Up from Slavery. Urged vocational education and self-improvement rather than confrontation as the way for African Americans to gain racial equality.

Question 37

Mao Zedong

Answer 37

Leader of the communist Chinese government from 1949 until 1976. Met with President Nixon on Nixon’s historical trip to China in 1972.

Question 38

John Peter Zenger

Answer 38

German immigrant, printer and journalist. Tried for criminal libel for criticizing New York governor in his paper; jury found him not guilty on the grounds that he printed the truth. His case was an early step in establishing freedom of the press.

Question 39

Betty Friedan

Answer 39

Made The Feminine Mystique, which is credited with starting the “second wave” of American feminism. Fought to bring women into the mainstream of American society now in fully equal partnership with men.