1. The photograph accompanying this quiz depicts the person in whose honor Congress authorized the establishment of
a. Booker T. Washington National Monument
b. George Washington Carver National Monument
c. Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
d. Frederick Douglass Home (now Frederick Douglass National Historic Site)

2. In 1943, the establishment of ______ in Diamond, Missouri, marked the first-ever authorization of a national park commemorating an African American.
a. George Washington Carver National Monument
b. Booker T. Washington National Monument
c. Frederick Douglass Home
d. Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site

3. The first African American Director of the National Park Service was
a. Charles Anderson
b. Daniel James
c. Robert Stanton
d. Barry Walker

4. What is the current status of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial that Congress authorized for the National Mall?
a. A Memorial design competition will be held in the near future.
b. The Memorial design has been approved and a building permit application submitted.
c. Construction of the Memorial is underway and should be completed in 2009.
d. The Memorial has been completed and will soon open to the public.

5. Which unit of the National Park System has the oldest standing African American church in America?
a. Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
b. Boston African American National Historic Site
c. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
d. Independence National Historical Park

6. The African Burial Ground National Monument in ______ was established to preserve the site where the bodies of thousands of black slaves were interred.
a. Baltimore
b. Philadelphia
c. Washington, DC
d. New York City

7. Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site preserves __________ where African Americans battled segregation and trained to become fighter pilots during World War II.
a. Moton Field
b. Floyd Bennett Field
c. Booker T. Washington Field
d. Miller Field

8. At ______, a huge Georgian mansion looks down on an overseer’s house and slave quarters, providing a clear view of the plantation system’s sharp social and economic divisions.
a. Hampton National Historic Site
b. George Washington Carver National Monument
c. Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site
d. Booker T. Washington National Monument

9. Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, which commemorates the site of the first important test of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, is the only unit of the National Park System that
a. has an operating high school on its premises
b. was established by order of the U.S. Supreme Court
c. is operated by a college fraternity
d. is required to pay municipal, state, and federal taxes

10. All of the following statements about the Birth Home in the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site are true EXCEPT: (Choose the one that “does not belong.”)
a. The Birth Home is located in the historic Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta.
b. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in the Birth Home.
c. The National Park Service owns the Birth Home.
d. The Birth Home was restored before it was opened to the public.

Extra Credit Question:

11. Racial segregation, with “whites only” rules for concessionaire services, was officially permitted in the national parks until December ______ when the National Park Service mandated that all concessions the national parks were to be desegregated.
a. 1934
b. 1945
c. 1954
d. 1968

Super Bonus Question:

12. The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park does not just consist of the Wright Cycle Company complex and other sites associated with the Wright Brothers. It also includes the Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial. This memorial, which is operated by the Ohio Historical Society, preserves the home of a renowned African American
a. aviator
b. musician and painter
c. poet and writer
d. aeronautical engineer

Answers:

(1) d -- Frederick Douglass Home (redesignated Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in 1988) was established in 1962 to honor the most famous African American of the 19th century. This photo of Douglass at about age 61 was taken ca. 1879 by the renowned Boston photographer George K. Warren.

(2) a -– When George Washington Carver National Monument was established in 1943 it was not only the first national park established in honor of an African American, it was also the first national monument established in honor of a person other than a President.

(3) c -– Robert Stanton, an African American who began his career as a seasonal ranger in Grand Teton National Park in 1962, was appointed Director of the National Park Service on August 4, 1997 and served until January 2001.

(4) b -– The proposed design for the Memorial was approved in September 2008. As of December 2008, the Martin Luther King National Memorial Project Foundation had raised about $108 million and was seeking a building permit. It will take about 18-20 months to complete the Memorial after construction begins.

(5) b -– The oldest standing African American church is one of 15 pre-Civil War structures that the Boston African American National Historic Site interprets. The structures in this park, all of which are associated with Boston's 19th century African-American community, are linked by the Black Heritage Trail in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood.

(6) d -– The lower Manhattan site preserved by the African Burial Ground National Monument was discovered in 1991 incident to construction of the Foley Square Federal Office Building. As many as 15,000 to 20,000 African ancestry people may have been interred at the site, which functioned as a burial ground from the 1600s until 1812.

(7) a -- The grand opening of Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site was held at historic Moton Field in October 2008.

(8) a -- Hampton National Historic Site, which is located north of Towson, Maryland, preserves a remnant of a vast 18th century estate that was owned by the Ridgely family for seven generations from 1745 to 1948. The mansion, one of America’s finest remaining examples of Georgian architecture, was the largest private residence in America when it was completed in 1790.

(9) a -– The Central High School component of Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is not just an active school in the Little Rock Central School District, it also ranks as one of the country’s best high schools.

(10) c -– While the National Park Service maintains the Birth Home at Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, the King Center actually owns the house and has made certain stipulations for its use (such as prohibiting visitors from taking interior photographs).
(11) b – Though mandated by the National Park Service in December 1945, the desegregation of the national parks took years to complete. At Shenandoah National Park, for example, the dining rooms at Lewis Mountain and Panorama remained segregated until 1947 and some park facilities remained segregated until 1950.

(12) c -- Paul Laurence Dunbar (1972-1906), the first African American poet to gain national critical acclaim, wrote 12 books of poetry (both dialect and standard English), four books of short stories, five novels, and a play. His work often addressed racial inequality issues.

Grading: 9 or 10 correct, rest on your laurels; 7 or 8 correct, pretty darn good; 6 correct, passable fair; 5 or fewer correct, nothing to brag about.