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This Black trivia quiz covers 50 free questions with answers across Black history and culture: the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Migration, jazz, Motown and the birthplace of hip-hop, inventors like Garrett Morgan and Sarah Boone, athletes from Jesse Owens to Arthur Ashe, and landmark cases from Dred Scott to Brown v. Board of Education. Openers such as who gave the "I Have a Dream" speech sit beside harder ones, like which movement gave "Black is Beautiful" its roots. It is built for Black History Month classrooms, family game nights, church groups and quiz hosts who want a round that goes beyond the same five names. If you came looking for fun Black trivia questions or Black family trivia questions for a reunion, a cookout or a holiday gathering, the mix of easy and hard is designed to work across generations. Every answer has been verified against a primary source or reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation after you answer. Play it through, share your score, and see which questions surprise the people who thought they knew it all.
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Q 01In what year did a seamstress's refusal to give up her bus seat spark the Montgomery bus boycott?
1955
The arrest came on December 1, and the boycott that followed lasted 381 days, ending only when bus segregation was ruled unconstitutional.
Q 02Who delivered the famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the 1963 March on Washington?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial to over 250,000 people.
Q 03What genre originated in New Orleans' African American communities around 1900?
Jazz
Jazz originated in the African American communities of New Orleans in the late 19th century, blending elements of blues, ragtime, and European harmonies.
Q 04Who was the first African American President of the United States?
Barack Obama
Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President on January 20, 2009, becoming the first African American to hold the office.
Q 05The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that flourished primarily during which decade?
1920s
Langston Hughes later called those years Manhattan's Black Renaissance, and the movement carried on into the 1930s.
Q 06Which African American mathematician was portrayed in "Hidden Figures" (2016)?
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson was a NASA mathematician whose orbital calculations were critical to the success of the first U.S. crewed spaceflights. The film also featured Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.
Q 07What were the Southern US racial segregation laws enforced from the 1870s until 1965 called?
Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the Southern states, mandating separate facilities for Black and white people in virtually all public spaces.
Q 08Which African American athlete broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947?
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, becoming the first African American to play in MLB in the modern era. His number 42 is retired across all of baseball.
Q 09Which African American celebration on January 1 commemorates emancipation?
Watch Night
Watch Night services are held in Black churches on New Year's Eve, originating from gatherings on December 31, 1862, as enslaved people awaited the Emancipation Proclamation taking effect on January 1, 1863.
Q 10Which landmark Supreme Court case ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional?
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" in public education was unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
Q 11Which author wrote the novel "Beloved" (1987), a story about the haunting legacy of slavery?
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's "Beloved" won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who escaped to Ohio.
Q 12What does the holiday Juneteenth commemorate?
Emancipation being enforced in Texas in 1865
General Gordon Granger's order in Galveston came 900 days after the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect, and the name is a blend of June and nineteenth.
Q 13Which city is considered the birthplace of hip-hop music?
Q 21Which Alabama institute scientist developed hundreds of uses for peanuts and sweet potatoes?
George Washington Carver
He wanted poor farmers to grow crops other than cotton, and his laboratory turned out hundreds of applications to make the new crops worth growing.
Q 22Which 1977 miniseries based on Alex Haley's novel became one of the most-watched broadcasts in US history?
Roots
Roots aired on ABC over eight consecutive nights in January 1977. Its final episode drew 100 million viewers, and an estimated 130 to 140 million watched the miniseries overall — more than half the U.S. population at the time.
Q 23What is the 1921 destruction of Oklahoma's 'Black Wall Street' by white mobs called?
New York City
Hip-hop originated in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s. DJ Kool Herc is widely credited with pioneering the genre at a back-to-school party in 1973.
Q 14Garrett Morgan patented an early three-way version of which roadway device in 1923?
Traffic signal
He designed it after witnessing a bad crash at an intersection; he also invented a protective smoke hood he used in a 1916 tunnel rescue.
Q 15Which African American poet wrote "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"?
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" chronicles her early years and became one of the most widely read memoirs of the 20th century.
Q 16The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in which California city?
Oakland
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale met at Merritt College there and founded the party in October 1966, first drawing attention by openly carrying firearms while monitoring police.
Q 17Which soul singer is known as the "Queen of Soul"?
Aretha Franklin
Rolling Stone twice named her the greatest singer of all time, and in 1987 she became the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Q 18What was the Underground Railroad?
A network of secret routes and safe houses for escapees
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to free states and Canada, aided by abolitionists like Harriet Tubman.
Q 19Booker T. Washington became the first principal of which HBCU when it opened in 1881?
Tuskegee Institute
He opened the school on July 4, 1881, on the grounds of a church, and within months had raised enough from Massachusetts donors to buy a farm and put up a large school building.
Q 20What traditional African American dish, made from pig intestines, is considered a soul food staple?
Chitlins (chitterlings)
A traditional Southern dish, they spread across the country with the Black Migration and are also eaten across much of Europe.
Tulsa Race Massacre
The Tulsa Race Massacre of May 31–June 1, 1921, destroyed the Greenwood District, killing an estimated 100-300 people and leaving 10,000 Black residents homeless.
Q 24Who was the first African American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress?
Halle Berry
She won for Monster's Ball, having earlier played Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American woman ever nominated for the award.
Q 25Which Harlem Renaissance poet wrote the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"?
Langston Hughes
He wrote it at 17 while crossing the Mississippi by train on the way to visit his father in Mexico.
Q 26Which African American sprinter won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens won gold in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4x100m relay at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, becoming the most successful athlete at those Games.
Q 27What seven-day celebration of African heritage did Maulana Karenga create in 1966?
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966 and is based on seven principles (Nguzo Saba) including unity, self-determination, and creativity.
Q 28Which abolitionist, born into slavery in Maryland, published a bestselling 1845 Narrative of his life?
Frederick Douglass
He went on to write two more autobiographies and became one of the most influential voices of the 19th century.
Q 29Which African American surgeon improved blood plasma storage and organized the first large-scale blood bank?
Charles Drew
He directed the first American Red Cross Blood Bank in 1941, then resigned in protest at the policy of segregating donated blood by race.
Q 30Which 2018 Marvel Studios film was its first with an African American director and a mostly African American cast?
Black Panther
Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Chadwick Boseman, grossed $1.35 billion worldwide and was the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars.