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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The authors writes in "Down at the Cross," "Yes, it does indeed mean something - something unspeakable - to be born, in a white country, and Anglo-Teutonic, antisexual country, black. You very soon, without knowing it, give up all hope of" what?
(a) "Communication."
(b) "Redemption."
(c) "Inflation."
(d) "Communion."

2. Where does the author describe listening to the Muslim speakers in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Broadway and 45th Street.
(b) Delancey and Hickamore Streets.
(c) 12th Street and Seventh Avenue.
(d) 125th Street and Seventh Avenue.

3. 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) "To look themselves in the mirror and to know who they truly are."
(b) "To listen to history."
(c) "Their lives, their self-image, or their property threatened."
(d) "To actually pay heed to the voices of others."

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

5. As the author describes growing up in Harlem in "Down at the Cross," he says, "In the same way that the girls were destined to gain as much weight as their mothers, the boys, it was clear, would" what?
(a) "Fall even further from grace."
(b) "Leave home and never return."
(c) "Become even lower than their fathers."
(d) "Rise no higher than their fathers."

6. On what day of the week does the author describe visiting Elijah Muhammad in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Friday.
(b) Sunday.
(c) Thursday.
(d) Monday.

7. 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?
(a) "Sorrow."
(b) "Love."
(c) "Terror."
(d) "Faith."

8. The author claims in "Down at the Cross" that two things caused him to begin listening to the Muslim speakers. What was the second thing?
(a) His father's death.
(b) The Vietnam War.
(c) The struggle for power.
(d) The intensity of the crowds.

9. About how old does the author describe the female pastor as being when he met her in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) 45-50.
(b) 25-30.
(c) 55-60.
(d) 65-70.

10. Where was the author going when he crossed Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and the policeman made a racial slur toward him in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) To his high school.
(b) To the Institute.
(c) To the 42nd Street Library.
(d) To a Broadway performance.

11. What word from "Down at the Cross" refers to a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument?
(a) Protagonist.
(b) Pedagogue.
(c) Demagogue.
(d) Antagonist.

12. 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) "Hope."
(b) "A handle, a lever, a means of inspiring fear."
(c) "A backdoor into white society."
(d) "A mechanism to provoke change in the hearts of men."

13. The author writes in "Down at the Cross," "From my own point of view, the fact of the Third Reich alone makes obsolete forever any question of" what?
(a) "White superiority."
(b) "Love."
(c) "Christian superiority."
(d) "Black superiority."

14. How old was the author when two police officers amused themselves with frisking him, according to the story in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) 12.
(b) 10.
(c) 19.
(d) 16.

15. In "Down at the Cross," what does the author define as "the judges, the juries, the shotguns, the law"?
(a) "Power."
(b) "White society."
(c) "Legality."
(d) "Freedom."

Short Answer Questions

1. For how long did the author remain on the pulpit as a Young Minister?

2. What does the author claim is the only thing to "cause any of those people to treat you as they presumably wanted to be treated" in "Down at the Cross"?

3. What kind of athletic career does the author describe pursuing but not succeeding at in "Down at the Cross"?

4. What does the author say "catches up with kingdoms and crushes them" in "Down at the Cross"?

5. During what years did Elijah Muhammad lead the Nation of Islam?

(see the answer keys)

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