Law & Politics

Question 1

In 2009, he became the first black American U.S. Attorney General. He is the 82nd Attorney General
of the United States.

Answer 1

Eric Holder

Question 2

He was the first black lawyer to win a lawsuit in America was.

Answer 2

Robert Morris

Question 3

In 2011, she became the first African American and South Asian to hold the office of Attorney General
of the State of California.

Answer 3

Kamala Harris

Question 4

The first black lawyer admitted to the bar in the United States was Macon Bolling Allen, from what
city and state.

Answer 4

Portland, Maine.

Question 5

In 1968, he was, former mayor of Prichard, Alabama, founded the first Black American Law Students
Association (BALSA) at the New York University Law School. BALSA was the precursor to the
Black Law Students Association (BLSA). In 198, BALSA revised its name and the word “American”
was deleted to encompass all blacks, including those not of American nationality.

Answer 5

Algemon Johnson Cooper, Jr.

Question 6

He became the first black lawyer to actually argue a case before the Supreme Court on February 2,
1866.

Answer 6

Samuel R. Lowery

Question 7

In 1967 President Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court. Justice Marshall became the first
black Supreme Court Justice.

Answer 7

Thurgood Marshall

Question 8

In 1966, she became the first African-American woman appointed to the federal bench.

Answer 8

Constance Baker Motley

Question 9

On January 29, 1926, this woman became the first black woman lawyer admitted to practice before
the Supreme Court.

Answer 9

Violette N. Anderson

Question 10

On what date did Lani Guinier became the first Black woman named as a tenured faculty member in
the Harvard University School. Her official starting date was July 1, 1998.

Answer 10

January 26, 1998

Question 11

In 2004, this law school appointed Frederic White, the first African-American dean of an ABAaccredited
law school in California.

Answer 11

Golden Gate University’s School of Law

Question 12

In 1870, he was the first African-American U.S. Senator (Mississippi).

Answer 12

Senator Hiram Revels

Question 13

January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued this order proclaiming the freedom of slaves in ten
states that were still in rebellion during the Civil War.

Answer 13

Emancipation Proclamation

Question 14

In 1866, these two men became the first blacks elected to a U.S. state legislature (Massachusetts
House of Representatives).

Answer 14

Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell

Question 15

January 4, 1869 the first law school in the United States intended for African-Americans and those
seeking to provide legal defense for African-Americans was established at this law school.

Answer 15

Howard School of Law

Question 16

1948: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this woman be admitted to the law school at the University
of Oklahoma. The ruling states that blacks have the right to a legal education of the same quality as
whites.

Answer 16

Ada Sipuel

Question 17

In 1969 who served as the first black president of a law review journal at a top law school. He is
named to head the Stanford Law Review.

Answer 17

Vaughn Charles Williams

Question 18

In what year did Annette Gordon becomes the first black woman editor on the Harvard Law Review.

Answer 18

1982

Question 19

1990: What group called filed a suit against Harvard Law School saying it does not comply with
Massachusetts’s law in its hiring women and minorities.

Answer 19

Harvard Law School Coalition for Civil Rights

Question 20

In 1990 he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

Answer 20

Barack Obama

Question 21

She was the first woman to run for U.S. President and was the first black woman elected to Congress.

Answer 21

Shirley Holmes Chisholm

Question 22

This 1960 ruling declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional.

Answer 22

Boyton v. Virginia

Question 23

The “Big 5” Civil Rights groups are?

Answer 23

The National Urban League; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP); Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); The Congress of Racial
Equality (C.O.R.E); The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Question 24

What act outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious
minorities, and women. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial
segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by facilities that served the general public (“public
accommodations”)?

Answer 24

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Question 25

What law of 1850 denied runaway African Americans a trial by jury or right to testify in their
own defense?

Answer 25

The Fugitive Slave Law

Question 26

In what year was the NAACP founded?

Answer 26

1909

Question 27

Which of the 13 colonies was the first to abolish slavery?

Answer 27

Vermont

Question 28

What was the name of the abolitionist newspaper, which Frederick Douglass founded?

Answer 28

The North Star

Question 29

How long did the Montgomery Bus Boycott last?

Answer 29

One year

Question 30

In what landmark decision did the Supreme Court declare that the segregation of public schools was
in violation of the 14th Amendment?

Answer 30

Brown v. Board of Education

Question 31

The twelve African-Americans elected to the House of Reps in 1970 created this political group in
1971.

Answer 31

Congressional Black Caucus

Question 32

In what landmark decision did the Supreme Court declare that laws prohibiting interracial marriage
were unconstitutional?

Answer 32

Loving v. Virginia (1967)

Question 33

In what landmark decision did the Supreme Court declare that slaves were property, that blacks were
not citizens, and that the MI Compromise was unconstitutional?

Answer 33

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

Question 34

Seen to be tackling the issues of both economic and social equality, schools were often targeted as
places of demonstrations. Which city in Arkansas saw 9 Black families enroll their children in an “allwhite”
school in 1957?

Answer 34

Little Rock

Question 35

One of the first efforts to restrict rights was voter suppression laws. What is NOT one of the strategies
used in the 1880s and 1890s to prevent African-Americans from voting?

Answer 35

Voter Identification Laws

Question 36

What US Supreme Court decision created the legal fiction of “separate but equal”?

Answer 36

Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 37

What southern born US President set back race relations in the United States by decades when he resegregated
the federal government?

Answer 37

Woodrow Wilson

Question 38

During the “Red Summer” of 1919, what major US city witnessed a two-week race riot that resulted
in 38 deaths?

Answer 38

Chicago

Question 39

During the “Red Summer” of 1919, what southern state had race riots that caused the death of at least
100 African-American sharecroppers?

Answer 39

Arkansas

Question 40

Who was the first African American to serve as the United States Secretary of State?

Answer 40

Collin Powell

Question 41

Who was the first colonist slain in the Boston Massacre?

Answer 41

Crispus Attucks

Question 42

The U.S. Emancipation Proclamation, signed in 1863, freed slaves in what areas?

Answer 42

Confederate territories

Question 43

What slave sued for freedom in the 1840s, claiming that since he was in a free state, it was illegal for
his master to keep him in bondage? The Supreme Court finally decided the case in 1857.

Answer 43

Dred Scott

Question 44

A man called Cinque led a successful rebellion aboard what slave ship in the mid-nineteenth century?

Answer 44

La Amistad

Question 45

In 1870 what state elected the first African American to be seated as a Representative in the United
States Congress?

Answer 45

South Carolina

Question 46

Robert Weaver became the first Black cabinet member of a United States President. Which President
appointed him?

Answer 46

Lyndon B. Johnson

Question 47

Mary McLeod Bethune organized the “Black Cabinet” for which president?

Answer 47

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Question 48

Who was the first Black female member of Congress?

Answer 48

Shirley Chisholm

Question 49

Who was the first Black female to become a national news commentator?

Answer 49

Ethel L. Payne

Question 50

Who was the first black woman to serve in the United Nations?

Answer 50

Patricia Roberts Harris