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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did the person do that to Claudette?

2. What did Claudette do?

3. In 1950, what percent of black women were maids for white families?

4. Who is Fred Gray?

5. What were blacks' attitudes as Claudette finished high school?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Claudette's mother find out where she was and who did she bring with her?

2. Where was Claudette taken by the officers and what did she do?

3. When was Brown v. Board of Education decided, who decided it and what did it do?

4. How did the incident on the bus with Claudette start?

5. What did Robinson remember and what did she begin to do?

6. What kept blacks poor and what kind of work did most blacks do?

7. What did Claudette say to the two police officers who arrested her and what did she do when they pulled her off the bus?

8. Who was Jo Ann Robinson, how did she work for blacks, and how did she feel about Claudette's action?

9. Who was Claudette's lawyer, what did he do for her defense and what were the charges?

10. What did the police officers say to Claudette in the patrol car?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Claudette notes that she started crying but maintained that sitting in that spot was her right. The two policemen then dragged her off the bus, and Claudette went limp, refusing to fight back. On the police ride, the cops ridiculed her and called her a "nigger bitch". They said they were taking her to a woman's prison in Atmore, despite the fact that she was fifteen

1. Discuss Claudette's action of going limp when the police officers pulled her off the bus in terms of pacifism and protest. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Discuss the problems of racism in police officers. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Let's assume that the police officer degrading Claudette in the car did so out of fear. Why do you think fear can cause racism. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Claudette was four years old when she found out what happened when blacks acted up against whites. Some white boys came up to her and wanted to see her hands. They touched each other's hands and the boys laughed. When Claudette's mother saw them, she came up to Claudette and slapped her across the face and told her that she's not supposed to touch white people. The white boy's mother agreed. She learned to never touch white people again.

1. Discuss how you think the above incident could affect someone's self-esteem. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Many southern white women used black women as "nannies" or for child care. Discuss what might be contradictory about allowing black women to care for white children, which would include holding them, bathing them, etc. and black children being told they could not touch white children. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. In the 1960's Grace Haskell dyed her skin and traveled America as a black woman. She was the exact same person under the black skin and yet simply because she was dark her experience of the country and people became different. In view of the incident with Claudette above, discuss the insanity of prejudice on the basis of skin color. You might want to start your discussion about how a white woman who becomes black all of a sudden was not good enough to touch another white person. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think it is important that this book was written? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think this book did what the author set out to do? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Explain why you might or might not read another book by this author about another real life person. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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