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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. Who is Jo Ann Robinson?

2. What did Claudette want to do after reading about Harriet Tubman?

3. Why did Claudette's family stay up that night?

4. Why did Claudette sit in the front of the bus on March 2, 1955?

5. To what point of view does the narration change from the opening of the book?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Nesbitt teach Claudette about black history?

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

3. Who was Geraldine Nesbitt, how was she educated and what was her influence on Claudette?

4. What happened when the lawyer, Nixon, called Rosa Parks about Claudette?

5. How did the bus drivers enforce the rules and what happened if a black person stood up to the driver?

6. Why didn't Claudette get arrested at the first stop when a policeman came to arrest her?

7. What did people think of Claudette, what made her curious about the whites and what was she taught about the whites?

8. With whom did Claudette go to live when she was a baby and what did she call them?

9. What happened to Claudette in the black community following her incident and how did some feel about it?

10. How did Claudette's appeal end up?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Mayor and city commissioners of Montgomery testified that segregation laws were required for city order. But Judge Rives replied that one cannot command one person to give up their Constitutional rights so that others won't commit a crime.

1. Give the reasons you think the segregation laws were required for city order. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. What do you think Judge Rives meant by his statement about Constitutional rights? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss the irony of the fact that although the white segregationist say that segregation is needed for city order it is those same segregationist who cause the disorder with their prejudice. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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