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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the author, slavery transfigured black bodies into:
(a) Animals.
(b) Sugar, tobacco, cotton and gold.
(c) Beasts of burden.
(d) Hollow shells of former men.

2. For how many years were black people enslaved in America?
(a) 100 years.
(b) 150 years.
(c) 250 years.
(d) 50 years.

3. How did the author spend most of his time at The Mecca?
(a) Listening to and writing poetry.
(b) Arguing politics on the Lawn.
(c) Absorbing culture and music.
(d) Reading and taking notes on black literature and essays.

4. How did the author and his friends illegally obtain alcohol when they were underage?
(a) They would steal it from the liquor store.
(b) They would steal it from their parents.
(c) There were men of legal drinking age who would purchase it for them for a fee.
(d) They would make corn liquor at home in the bathtub.

5. What is "the Yard"?
(a) A strip of green grass near the White House where protesters gather.
(b) An area near the docks in Virginia where students gather.
(c) A communal green space at Howard University when students gather.
(d) A club in downtown Atlanta.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did the author's father discipline him?

2. What is "The Mecca" that the author describes to his son?

3. What is PG County?

4. What realization did the author make about death in the sixth grade?

5. How did the author's father react when the author threatened his 9th grade teacher?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reasons did the author's father punish him and why?

2. What conflicting thoughts does the author have about the civil rights movement of the 1960s?

3. How does the author use poetry to express his thoughts?

4. What role did violence play in the author's childhood?

5. Why didn't the author console his son when Samori grieved over the release of Michael Brown's killer?

6. What does the author mean when he asks: "How do I live free in this black body?"

7. According to the author, why is America blind to it's racially defined shortcomings?

8. How does research and study affect the author as a young man?

9. Why did the author's mother encourage him to write?

10. Why did the author's son experience such extreme grief when Michael Brown's killer was set free?

(see the answer keys)

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