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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. How did Claudette feel about the bus boycott?

2. How did Parks act when she was arrested?

3. How much did Parks have to pay?

4. Why was Claudette kicked out of school?

5. What worried Claudette more than the court decision?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the blacks get around Montgomery during the bus boycott?

2. What did Claudette feel about her new home, how long did she stay and why did she leave?

3. Why was Parks considered a good figurehead for the bus boycott?

4. How and when did the bus boycott get started?

5. How does Claudette get to the court, how many days had the boycott been going when she went to court and how did blacks feel about the court case?

6. How did Claudette become known again in the 1970's and how did she feel about that?

7. What did Claudette do when she returned to Montgomery?

8. What was happening with the bus line by late January and how did the city leaders respond to that?

9. How did Gray begin his arguments, what did the prosecutor accuse the plaintiffs of and what did they say to his accusations?

10. When was Claudette's baby born, what was his name and what did she do while waiting for the lawsuit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In 1950, sixty percent of black women in Montgomery were maids for white families and seventy-five percent of black men did unskilled labor. Blacks made half as much as whites.

1. Discuss the changes in black person's employment status from 1950 to the present. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. In India due to the caste system, a member of the untouchable caste can work only in jobs considered immoral or dirty, such as care of the dead for burial. Pretending that an untouchable is born who has the I.Q. of Einstein, discuss the human potential wasted for that person to be allowed to only collect garbage or bury the dead. Relate this idea to blacks in the 1950's being allowed only manual jobs in the south. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss how knowing one is only able to have lower class jobs would affect a child's motivation to do well in school. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Claudette had been hidden away and forgotten, if for no other reason than that she had become pregnant out of wedlock and was therefore not only a disgrace to the black community but no longer even close to a suitable face for the movement.

1. Do you think a person is even more of a heroine or hero when she/he does not receive any recognition for an act of bravery? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think the fact that Claudette became pregnant out of wedlock in any way negates the courage of her actions? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Do you think an unwed mother would be seen differently in the present than in Claudette's younger years? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Rumors destroyed Claudette's reputation, though. She was also branded "unfit" to be the face of a movement.

1. Often when someone does something extraordinary others will seek to criticize or bring that person down. Why do you think people do that? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. What kind of rumors did you think people were spreading about Claudette, according to the book? Do you believe any of the accusations about her were important? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Do you think the leaders of the movement were correct in declaring Claudette unfit to be the face of the movement? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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