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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. What did the driver say to Claudette?

2. What sometimes happened if a black person stood up to a driver?

3. What is one thing Jim Crow did to the blacks?

4. Who is Jo Ann Robinson?

5. Why were many worried about making Claudette the face of the movement?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Claudette find out about her intelligence in school, why wasn't she popular and what did she think about the way blacks perceived themselves?

2. Who was Jo Ann Robinson, how did she work for blacks, and how did she feel about Claudette's action?

3. How did Claudette change under Nesbitt's mentoring and what did she read that made her what to help the black people?

4. What idea was beginning to grow and why hadn't it been done yet?

5. Where was Claudette taken by the officers and what did she do?

6. What happened when the lawyer, Nixon, called Rosa Parks about Claudette?

7. What did people think of Claudette, what made her curious about the whites and what was she taught about the whites?

8. How did Claudette feel on the way home, what did her family fear and what did their Reverend say about the incident?

9. How did Claudette's mother find out where she was and who did she bring with her?

10. What did Claudette say was the reason Reeves' conviction changed her life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Claudette was four years old when she found out what happened when blacks acted up against whites. Some white boys came up to her and wanted to see her hands. They touched each other's hands and the boys laughed. When Claudette's mother saw them, she came up to Claudette and slapped her across the face and told her that she's not supposed to touch white people. The white boy's mother agreed. She learned to never touch white people again.

1. Discuss how you think the above incident could affect someone's self-esteem. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Many southern white women used black women as "nannies" or for child care. Discuss what might be contradictory about allowing black women to care for white children, which would include holding them, bathing them, etc. and black children being told they could not touch white children. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. In the 1960's Grace Haskell dyed her skin and traveled America as a black woman. She was the exact same person under the black skin and yet simply because she was dark her experience of the country and people became different. In view of the incident with Claudette above, discuss the insanity of prejudice on the basis of skin color. You might want to start your discussion about how a white woman who becomes black all of a sudden was not good enough to touch another white person. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Claudette notes that she started crying but maintained that sitting in that spot was her right. The two policemen then dragged her off the bus, and Claudette went limp, refusing to fight back. On the police ride, the cops ridiculed her and called her a "nigger bitch". They said they were taking her to a woman's prison in Atmore, despite the fact that she was fifteen

1. Discuss Claudette's action of going limp when the police officers pulled her off the bus in terms of pacifism and protest. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Discuss the problems of racism in police officers. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Let's assume that the police officer degrading Claudette in the car did so out of fear. Why do you think fear can cause racism. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

The segregationists continued to resist changing anything for the boycott. Many singled out Martin Luther King to blame for "stirring up trouble" and the like. He had been attacked several times. Segregationists had also used an obscure anti-boycott law to have many black leaders arrested, including King and Parks.

1. Why do you think the segregationists continued to resist change? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Why do you think Martin Luther King was singled out by the segregationists? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. When a law is wrong such as the anti-boycott law, do you think people should still obey it? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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