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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What topic is NOT listed among the issues that the author of "Lonely in America" feels unable to fixate upon in order to dispel her sense of loneliness?
(a) Racism.
(b) Friendship.
(c) The failures of the federal government.
(d) Poverty.

2. In what year did Phillis Wheatley sail to London for a six week period in order to promote her poetry?
(a) 1773.
(b) 1768.
(c) 1832.
(d) 1901.

3. Once the author of "The Weight" stopped reading James Baldwin's works in order to separate his own work from that of James Baldwin's, what is NOT one author he mentions reading voraciously?
(a) Bell hooks.
(b) Sergei Dovlatov.
(c) Henry Dumas.
(d) Ralph Ellison.

4. What does the author of "'The Dear Pledges of Our Love'": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband" name as her own mother's voice type?
(a) Soprano.
(b) Tenor.
(c) Bass.
(d) Alto.

5. How often do historians say lynchings of African-Americans occurred in the early decades of the twentieth century?
(a) Every month.
(b) Every four days.
(c) Every day.
(d) Every week.

6. In what New Orleans area cemetery is the author of "Lonely in America's" family buried?
(a) Calvary Cemetery.
(b) Normandy Cemetery.
(c) Greenwood Cemetery.
(d) Holt Cemetery.

7. The author of "White Rage" states that the case of Connick vs. Thompson ruled that it was what "for a city prosecutor's staff to hide evidence that exonerated a black man who was rotting on death row for 14 years" (87)?
(a) Justified.
(b) Unconstitutional.
(c) Illegal.
(d) Legal.

8. Who was the author of Memoir and Poems of Phyllis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave?
(a) Margaretta Matilda Odell.
(b) Mary Margaret Johann.
(c) Marie Ellen Magdalena.
(d) Jane Augusten Burroughs.

9. In what year was Trayvon Martin killed by a police officer?
(a) 2012.
(b) 2011.
(c) 2013.
(d) 2014.

10. In what city does the author of "The Weight" meet his friend in order to visit the house in which James Baldwin died?
(a) Nice.
(b) Paris.
(c) Berlin.
(d) Lisbon.

11. How many books of Phillis Wheatley's poetry were published during her lifetime?
(a) 3.
(b) None.
(c) 2.
(d) 1.

12. What are the estimates regarding how often an African-American is now killed by police within the United States, circa 2018?
(a) Every 2-3 days.
(b) Every 4-6 days.
(c) Every 5-8 days.
(d) Every day.

13. What is the name of the U.S. Senator who is famous for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 "so strenuously that he conducted the longest lone filibuster ever" for over 24 straight hours?
(a) Thomas Carper.
(b) Benjamin Cardin.
(c) Trent Lott.
(d) Strom Thurmond.

14. Of what feeling does the author of "Lonely in America" say she had been trying to cure in herself as a "strategy to ward off future misery" (34)?
(a) Hope.
(b) Joy.
(c) Optimism.
(d) Depression.

15. The author of "'The Dear Pledges of Our Love'": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband" states that most of the information about Phillis Wheatley comes from a book published how many years after the poet's death?
(a) 75.
(b) 50.
(c) 25.
(d) 15.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what city was an eighteenth century gravesite discovered that contained 13 people of African ancestry?

2. What major event happened upon Phillis Wheatley's return to America from London?

3. At what age did the poet Phillis Wheatley die?

4. The author of "Where Do We Go from Here?" states that "we must know deep in our bones and in our hearts that if the ancestors survived" what, "we can survive anything" (62)?

5. A 2013 report by researchers at Brandeis University calculated that what fraction "of the collective wealth of African-American families was stripped away" (86) during the Great Recession?

(see the answer keys)

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