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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The author asserts in "Down at the Cross," "The real reason that nonviolence is considered to be a virtue in Negroes--I am not speaking now of its racial value, another matter altogether--is that white men do not want" what?
(a) "Their lives, their self-image, or their property threatened."
(b) "To listen to history."
(c) "To look themselves in the mirror and to know who they truly are."
(d) "To actually pay heed to the voices of others."

2. The author states in "Down at the Cross," "I certainly could not discover any principled reason for not becoming a criminal, and it is not my poor, God-fearing parents who are to be indicted for the lack but" what?
(a) "This society."
(b) "My intelligence."
(c) "My faith."
(d) "The oppression of my people."

3. What word from "Down at the Cross" refers to a large area of unforested grassland in southeastern Europe or Siberia?
(a) Steppe.
(b) Gully.
(c) Corral.
(d) Ravine.

4. The author states in "Down at the Cross," "White people hold the power, which means that they are" what?
(a) "Selfish."
(b) "Inferior to blacks."
(c) "Superior to blacks."
(d) "Free."

5. The author claims in "Down at the Cross" that two things caused him to begin listening to the Muslim speakers. What was the first thing?
(a) World War II.
(b) The Police.
(c) The Presidential elections.
(d) The Vietnam War.

6. The author writes in "Down at the Cross" that "the social treatment accorded even the most successful Negroes proved that one needed, in order to be free, something more than a bank account. One needed" what?
(a) "A mechanism to provoke change in the hearts of men."
(b) "A handle, a lever, a means of inspiring fear."
(c) "A backdoor into white society."
(d) "Hope."

7. How old was the author when he describes having gone through a "prolonged religious crisis" in the beginning of "Down at the Cross"?
(a) 19.
(b) 21.
(c) 10.
(d) 14.

8. How does the author describe his feelings about "a separate black economy in America"?
(a) "A cautionary warning."
(b) "A true possibility if there were enough cooperation."
(c) "Willfull, and even mischievous nonsense."
(d) "An ideal to attain."

9. What does the author describe school revealing itself to be to the black community passing through adolescence in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) "A path to enlightenment."
(b) "A child's game that one could not win."
(c) "A segue into more fruitful endeavors."
(d) "A pursuit toward excellence."

10. What does the author say "changes, totally and forever, the nature of reality and brings into devastating question the true meaning of man's history" in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) "Hope itself."
(b) "The threat of social evolution."
(c) "The ambition toward a freer world."
(d) "The threat of universal exctinction."

11. Who is quoted as having said "It is better to marry than to burn" in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) St. George.
(b) St. Andrew.
(c) St. Paul.
(d) St. Peter.

12. What word from "Down at the Cross" means something continuing without pause or interruption?
(a) Exuberant.
(b) Explicit.
(c) Incessant.
(d) Petulant.

13. When was the Nation of Islam founded?
(a) July 4, 1930.
(b) July 4, 1961.
(c) July 4, 1940.
(d) July 4, 1936.

14. In what periodical was "Down at the Cross" first published?
(a) Reader's Digest.
(b) Publisher's Weekly.
(c) The New Yorker.
(d) Time.

15. What does the word "bulwark" mean in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) A rope attached to a roof.
(b) A chain.
(c) A defensive wall.
(d) A fencing sword.

Short Answer Questions

1. The author states in "Down at the Cross" that the "principles governing the rites and customs of the churches in which I grew up did not differ from the principles governing the rites and customs of other chuches, white. The principles were Blindness, Lonelines, and" what?

2. What does the author describe as the subject of the Nation of Islam speeches he observed on the streets in "Down at the Cross"?

3. In describing his dinner at Elijah Muhammad's home, the author states, "I began to see that Elijah's power came from his" what?

4. In "Down at the Cross," what does the author define as "the judges, the juries, the shotguns, the law"?

5. What author does the narrator describe beginning to read when he began losing his faith in "Down at the Cross"?

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