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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. A day was set as "D" day, when students would go to jail in historical numbers. What day was "D" day?

2. MLK talks about the fact that different organizations getting together for the unity of the movement is a remarkable feature of importance. He states that unity has never meant what?

3. MLK talks of people wondering "what the Negro will expect as he gains rights" and he likens the Negro people demanding more to what person?

4. What was the name of the assistant deputy attorney general that the Attorney General dispatched on May 4th?

5. What does MLK quote St. Augustine as saying about an unjust law?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did approximately 125 business leaders see when they left for lunch during the May 7th Senior Citizens Committee meeting?

2. Why does MLK state that "we were all involved with" John F. Kennedy's death?

3. In what case does MLK mention that it wouldn't profit a Negro parent to send his or her child to an integrated school?

4. When the campaign had sent out a request for volunteers, what did the six tiny youngsters ask Andy Young, and what did they do to help the movement?

5. After Bull Connor asks his men to "turn on the hoses" on the Negros marching to a prayer meeting, MLK describes the event as one of the most fantastic events of the Birmingham story. Why?

6. What did MLK and the S.C.L.C. officers want to do to bring a new dynamic to the campaign that would receive criticism?

7. How does MLK answer the questions of the clergymen of "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Aren't negotiations better?"

8. What does MLK say is the difference between just laws and unjust laws?

9. What did scientific observers place in the sealed death chambers where poison gas was to be administered to the victims of capital punishment?

10. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," who is the letter addressed to and why is it written?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Jesse Jackson's afterward, he describes some of the impacts and results that the movement in Birmingham had on the country and on the south. He speaks about Atlanta being able to host the Olympics and Orlando being about to be the number one tourist destination in the country. None of this would have been possible in the Old South. What does Jesse Jackson describe as different as far as the nation's Presidents are concerned? What does Jackson mean when he says that "great change rarely comes from the top down"? What does that quote have to do with this book? Explain your answers, and use specific examples from the book to support your views.

Essay Topic 2

What are some of your favorite words that MLK writes? Why did these words appeal to you more than others? What kind of feelings did these words evoke in you as a reader? How do you think MLK was feeling at the time he wrote these particular words? Explain the reason for picking the particular excerpts. How do you think MLK changed as a person during the events of this book? Explain your reasoning by using specific examples from the book.

Essay Topic 3

In "The Sword That Heals," MLK mentions a man named Marcus Garvey. Who was Marcus Garvey, and what was his involvement with the Negro population in America? What type of movement did Garvey call for? Why does MLK state that Garvey's plan was doomed? Do you think most of the Negro population felt the same way? Why or why not? After the "death" of the Garvey movement, what was the new development that was conducted by the N.A.A.C.P.?

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