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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. What did Judge Rives say about segregation?

2. What was the name of the prosecutor on case?

3. To where did Reverend Abernathy invite Claudette?

4. What does Claudette think she did that Parks could not have done?

5. What did the court receive after its decision?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Claudette do about the celebration?

2. What happened to Rosa Parks when she was arrested and why did this make the black community angry?

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

4. What did Gray question Claudette about and what did the prosecutor try to do? How did Claudette do in court?

5. How long did the judges take with their decision and what was Mayor Gayle's response?

6. Who were the judges on Claudette's court case?

7. 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?

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

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

10. Why was Claudette considered a bad choice to be the "poster person" for a bus boycott? What did she say about her problem?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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.

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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