QUIZ

African American History Month

QUESTION #1

Which country celebrates Black History Month in February?

Choose all that apply.

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• Canada
• Ireland
• Germany
• Netherlands

ANSWER #1

A. Canada and C. Germany

Black History Month is celebrated in February in

• United States (1970 at Kent State University, 1976 nationwide)
• Canada (1995)
• Germany (1990)

Canada and Germany followed the US lead in choosing February,

the birth month of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln

Black History Month is celebrated in October in

• Great Britain (1987)
• Ireland (2010 in Cork, 2014 nationwide)
• Netherlands (2015)

Ireland and Netherlands followed Great Britain’s lead, which chose October to create greater UK-centricity and honor deep ties of many African cultures to the harvest and autumn equinox

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QUESTION #2

African American migration to Minnesota tripled in which decade?

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• 1860’s
• 1900’s
• 1950’s
• 1980’s

ANSWER #2�A. 1860’s

George Bonga, born near Duluth in 1802, is believed to be the first person of African descent born in Minnesota. His father was Black and his mother was Ojibwe.

1860’s

• African American population tripled in the 1860’s - from 259 to759 in 1870
• Formerly enslaved moved to Minnesota including
• 1863 – May 5 arrival at Fort Snelling of the Northerner steamboat which brought 76 people who escaped slavery in Missouri by raft
• 1863 - May 15 arrival of the steamboat Davenport, escorted by the Union Army, which brought over two hundred formerly enslaved persons to work in St. Paul.
• White Minnesotans who served in the U.S. Colored Regiments sent enslaved men and women who had escaped to Minnesota to work on farms and in the army.
• Post-Civil War some formerly enslaved came to Minnesota due to a labor shortage

1980’s

• African American population doubled in the 1980’s, tripled from 1980 to 2020
• Migration for from rust belt cities of the north (Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis)
• The African American population remained under 1% until 1980
• The “Great Migration” of African Americans from the south to the north from 1950 to 1970 had less effect in Minnesota than other Midwest states due to lack of unskilled factory jobs

QUESTION #3

In what year did Black men became eligible to vote in Minnesota?

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• 1857
• 1865
• 1868
• 1870

ANSWER #3

C. 1868

1857 – Minnesota Constitutional Convention

• pro-suffrage Republicans agree to table the black suffrage issue to ensure ratification of the constitution

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1865 & 1867 – Voters rejected the Equal Suffrage Amendment to remove the word “white” from the voting requirements of the state constitution

• Lukewarm, patronizing support from most Republican leaders
• Active, racist opposition from Democratic leaders
• In many counties, referendum was a separate ballot

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1868 – Voters approved the Equal Suffrage Amendment granting suffrage to all non-white men

• High Republican turnout to vote for Ulysses S. Grant – 90% of Grant voters gave their support
• The state Democratic convention declined to explicitly endorse white supremacy in its party platform
• Minnesota and Iowa became the first two post-Civil War states in the North whose electorate approved African American voting rights

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1870 – Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

QUESTION #4

Churches have played an important cultural, social and political role for African Americans. What was the first African American church in Minnesota?

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• St. Peter Claver, St Paul
• St James African Methodist Episcopal (AME), Mpls
• Pilgrim Baptist Church, St Paul
• Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church, Mpls

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ANSWER #4

C. Pilgrim Baptist Church, St Paul

B. St James AME – also accepted as correct

1888 - St. Peter Claver Church, St Paul

• First African American Catholic Church in Minnesota
• Named after the patron saint of slavery

1869 - St. James AME (African Methodist Episcopal)

• First African American AME church in Minnesota and first African American church in Minneapolis
• Informal worship may have begun as early as 1830
• First church and first pastor in 1869

1887 - Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church

• First Baptist church in Minneapolis founded by African Americans
• Its 15 members initially met in member’s hairdressing parlor
• formally organized on July 27, 1889, with 25 members

1866 - Pilgrim Baptist Church, St. Paul

• Began worshipping together in 1863
• Chartered Nov 15, 1866
• Founded by the “Pilgrims” who escaped slavery in Missouri by a raft and were towed to Fort Snelling by the Northerner in May 1863
• One of founders, Robert T. Hickam, became the first licensed African American minister in Minnesota

Current Pilgrim Baptist Church

Ladies Aid Society, Pilgrim Baptist Church

QUESTION #5

When did real estate developers began writing racial covenants (race-based property ownership restrictions) in Minnesota?

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• 1900
• 1910
• 1919
• 1926

ANSWER #5

B. 1910

1892 – Earliest known covenant – part of lawsuit in California

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1910 – first racial covenant in Minneapolis when Henry and Leonora Scott sold a property to Nels Anderson

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“…the premises shall not at any time be conveyed, mortgaged or leased to any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian or African blood or descent.”

1953 – Minnesota legislature banned new covenants

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1962 - Minnesota legislature prohibited housing discrimination on the basis of race, religion and national origin

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Minnesota is ranked 50th among all states for Black homeownership

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Real estate developers Edmund Walton and Henry Scott introduced racial covenants to Mpls in 1910

QUESTION #6

How many African Americans were lynched in Duluth, Minnesota?

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• 3
• 4
• 6
• 9

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ANSWER #6

A. 3

National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama

June 15, 1920

9 carnival workers arrested after Irene Tusken and James Sullivan reported being held at gunpoint by six black men and rape of Irene

• Neither Tusken nor Sullivan could identify any of the nine arrested men
• A physician examination found no physical evidence of assault

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3 men lynched - Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie

• Mob only able to break into the cells of 3 of the arrested men

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Max Mason was convicted of rape in November 1920 and served five years

• Only identified by voice and size by Tusken and Sullivan
• Posthumous pardon June 12, 2020 (first posthumous pardon granted in Mn’s history)

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William Miller was acquitted, charges dropped against 4 others

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Aftermath:

• 37 indictments for mob numbering thousands, only 3 convictions – for rioting, not murder
• African American community in Duluth dropped by 16% over the next 10 years
• A Duluth branch of the NAACP formed
• The Minnesota Anti-lynching law passed April 21, 1921

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Clayton, Jackson, McGhie Memorial in Duluth

QUESTION #7

Which civil rights activist(s) raised in Minnesota helped organize the 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”?

Choose all that apply

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• Roy Wilkins
• Josie Johnson
• Anna Arnold Hedgeman
• Mathew Little

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ANSWER #7

A. Roy Wilkins and C. Anna Arnold Hedgeman

Anna Arnold Hedgeman

• Raised in Anoka Minnesota
• Graduated from Anoka High School and Hamline University
• Instrumental in combining planned marches by MLK and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
• Only woman on planning committee
• Almost entirely responsible for mobilizing people to attend, arranging transportation, and organizing food and water for attendees
• Only at her insistence was a woman included as a speaker on the podium - Daisy Bates, the force behind the integration of the Little Rock, Arkansas schools.

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Roy Wilkins

• Raised in St. Paul
• Graduated from U of M
• Lead the NAACP from 1949 to 1977
• Strong proponent of systematic integration, non-violence and reform through legislation.
• Unlike other civil rights leaders
• Encouraged African American military service
• Supported denouncing suspected and actual Communists

Josie Johnson (middle),

part of the Mn Delegation

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Matthew Little,

Mpls NAACP,

Chair of the Mn Delegation

Asa Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman plan the route for the march

QUESTION #8

When did Martin Luther King Jr visit Minnesota?

Choose all that apply

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• 1960
• 1961
• 1963
• 1967

ANSWER #8

A, B, C, D

• - interviewed by KTCA television

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1961 – Mankato (November 12) and Mpls Urban League

• Speech entitled "Facing the Challenge of a New Age” at Mankato High School and two sermons at Centenary Church on the topic of "The Good Neighbor“
• Addressed the annual meeting of the Minneapolis Urban League

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1963 – January 28 – Airport and Northrop Auditorium

• Upbeat speech at airport about the accomplishments of the civil rights movement since his 1961 visit
• Before 3,000 at the University’s Northrop Auditorium spoke of the unfinished work facing the civil rights movement

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1967 – April 27 - University of Minnesota, St Paul campus

• “We are entering a new, much more difficult, phase of the Civil Rights Movement” because
• There has “never been a determined commitment by the vast majority of white Americans on the question of genuine equality for Negroes”
• “Large segments of white society are more concerned with tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity”
• Speech Discussed that civil rights law were passed without enforcement, housing discrimination impacting education and need for guaranteed annual income

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April 27, 1967

QUESTION #9

Nellie Stone Johnson is known for which of the following?

Choose all that apply

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A. Organizing Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union at the Mpls Club

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B. Helping merge the Democratic Party with the Farmer–Labor Party

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C. Writing the Minnesota Anti-Lynching law

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D. Leading the campaign for the Mn Fair Employment Practices Act

ANSWER #10

A, B, D

1954

1935

Nellie Stone Johnson

Dec 17, 1905 - April 2, 2002

labor, civil rights and education advocate

1930’s - organized co-workers at the Mpls Club.

1936 – First Black woman vice president of Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, Local 665 (first integrated union in Mn)

1940s -Led campaign to create the Minneapolis Fair Employment Practices department

1944 - Served on committee to merge Minnesota’s Democratic Party and Farmer-Labor Party

1945 - First Black person elected to citywide office in Minneapolis (Library Board)

1950 - Authored the initiative from the Minneapolis NAACP that led to the desegregation of the US armed forces

1955 - Led campaign for the Mn Employment Practices Act

1979-1988 - Democratic National Committee

1982 – 1990 Minnesota State University Board

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QUESTION #10

Who was the first African American Mayor in Minnesota?

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• Melvin Carter
• Jean Harris
• Craig Morris
• Sharon Sayles Belton

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ANSWER #10

C. Craig Morris

Dr. Jean Harris

1996-2001 Eden Prairie

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First female and first African American mayor of Eden Prairie

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Melvin Carter III

2018 – Current, St. Paul

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First African American mayor of St Paul

Sharon Sayles Belton

1994-2001 Minneapolis

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First female and first African American mayor of Minneapolis

Craig Morris

1986-1991 & 1994-2002

Lakeland (Washington County)

Chair of Metro Council 1991-94

Currently Chief Diversity Officer at Metropolitan State University

African American History Month Quiz

Perfect Score is 17

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10 questions

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2 possible points for #1 and #7

4 possible points for #8

3 possible points for #9