Begin the quiz

1. This free black family from New England performed as minstrels throughout the North before the civil war. What is the name of this family?

a.The Singing Lucas

b. The Robeson Family

c. Mahara's Minstrels

d. The African Company

e. The Billy Smith Revue

2. Born a slave in Natchez, Mississippi in 1809, this female singer, nicknamed "The Black Swan," sailed to England in 1853 where her success was so great that she was called upon to give a command performance for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. What was her name?

a. Sissieretta Jones

b. Ma Rainey

c. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield

d. Black Patty

e. Bessie Smith

3. This group of African American actors started the first American Negro drama group in New York and inspired the famed Ira Aldridge to become an actor. What was the name of this group?

a. The African Group

b.The Negro Ensemble Company

c. Ethiopian Quadrilles

d. The Negro Theatre

4. Which of the following performers was NOT among the early Negro stars of minstrelsy?

a. Wallace King

b. Charles Cruso

c. Bohee Brothers

d. Lew Johnson

e. Bert Williams

5. In 1865 a Negro, Charles Hicks, organized a minstrel company that become so successful that it was soon taken over by a white manager, Charles Callender. What was the name of this minstrel company?

a. The Alabamas

b. The Georgia Minstrels

c. Mahara's Minstrels

d. The Dandy Black Brigade.

6. In 1910, this famous Negro performer joined the Ziegfeld Follies, an otherwise all-white company, appearing in various editions of the show on Broadway for a decade and touring all America. What was his name?

a. George Walker

b. J. Rosamond Johnson

c. James Reese Europe

d. Bert Williams

7. P. T. Barnum began his career in 1835 by exhibiting what was at the time his one and only attraction, Joice Heth, a withered Negro slave said to be over one hundred years old. She was a slave whom Barnum purchased and boldly presented to the public as having been George Washington's Nurse.

a. True

b. False

8. Ernest Hogan, "The Unbleached American," who composed "Pasmala," played the longest single vaudeville run in history -- 44 weeks on the New York Roof in the early 1900's.

a. True

b. False

9. Heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson, gave nightly exhibition bouts at Broadway's Flea Circus.

a. True

b. False

10. Bessie Smith was a top drawer attraction, but only among Negroes in Negro theatres. The one time she was featured in a Broadway nightclub she did not draw. Her engagement lasted only three days.

a. True

b. False

11. Mamie Smith was the first blues singer to record, and her "Crazy Blues" was a best seller on the Negro market. In the light of her large sales, she asked for more than $50 a recording session and was frozen out of the record industry and died in obscurity.

a. True

b. False

12. This Negro songwriter was one of the earliest to produce a long series of hits. Beginning in 1866 he published a great many popular ballads including "The Lighthouse By The Sea," "The Fatal Wedding," "If I Could Only Blot Out The Past," and "The Baggage Coach Ahead." What was his name?

a. Gussie L. Davis

b. J. Rosamond Johnson

c. Oscar Brown Jr.

d. Shelton Brooks

13. A Negro barber in Philadelphia made up a song one day which he himself sang and played. A publisher learned of it and sought him out. The song was published in 1855 and the title page read: "A Sentimental Ethiopian Ballad - LISTEN TO THE MOCKING BIRD," Melody by (the Negro barber). The song sold so well that it was published again in 1856, but all credit went to a white woman, Alice Hawthorne. What was this barber's name?

a. Fletcher Henderson

b. Avon Long

c. Richard Milburn

d. Sy Oliver

14. This American dancer became the cakewalking toast of Russia shortly after the turn of the century when she came to perform and stayed for almost a decade. What was her name?

a. Josephine Baker

b. Florence Mills

c. Ida Forsyne

d. Sandy Burns

15. The smash Broadway hit "Shuffle Along" was written by:

a. Eubie Blake, Flournoy Miller, Noble Sissle and Aubrey Lyles.

b. Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle

c. J. Rosamond Johnson, George Johnson, Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle

d. Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle and Al Mayer

16. Mulatto, Brass Ankle, Blood Stream, Strange Fruit, Mamba's Daughters, Deep Are The Roots, Mandingo, Octoroon and Othello are all theatrical plays that had what in common?

a. The were all written by black playwrights.

b. They were smash hits on Broadway.

c. They dealt with the problems of miscegenation

d. They dealt with interracial marriage.

17. Robert E. Lee's former slave led this popular band of spiritual singers. What was the band's name?

a. Fisk Jubilee Singers

b. Sheppard Jubilee Singers

c. Slayton's Jubilee Singers

d. The Wilmington Jubilee Singers

18. The first African American to perform at Carnegie Hall was:

a. Marian Anderson

b. Paul Robeson

c. Adele Addison

d. Roland Hayes

19. The first Negro actor to play Othello was:

a. James Hewlett

b. Ira Aldridge

c.Paul Robeson

d. Shelton Brooks

20. Louis Gosset made his Broadway debut in 1953 in this play, which was a first production of Louis Peterson, a new Negro playwright, and starred Dorothy Carter and Frederick O'Neal as Gosset's parents. What was the name of the play?

a. A Raisin in the Sun

b. A Soldier's Story

c. Take A Giant Step

d. To All My Friends On Shore