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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the title of Phillis Wheatley's most often-anthologized poem?
(a) "To My Dear and Loving Husband."
(b) "On Being Brought from Africa to America."
(c) "Upon the Burning of Our House."
(d) "The Spider and the Fly."

2. 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?
(a) 1/2.
(b) 2/3.
(c) 1/4.
(d) 3/4.

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) Henry Dumas.
(b) Sergei Dovlatov.
(c) Bell hooks.
(d) Ralph Ellison.

4. A 2016 joint report by the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund states that the Republicans' plan to emphasize identification requirements would adversely affect how many African-American voters?
(a) Ten million.
(b) Eight million.
(c) Three million.
(d) Six million.

5. What was the name of Phillis Wheatley's husband, who is being defended in the essay "'The Dear Pledges of Our Love'": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband"?
(a) John Wheatley.
(b) James Jackson.
(c) John Peters.
(d) Jacob Wheatley.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what location did Granddaddy die within Kima Jones's poem "Homegoing, A.D."?

2. What is the occasion bringing everyone together within the poem "Homegoing, A.D. by Kima Jones?

3. Who founded the college in Alabama that the author of "'The Dear Pledges of Our Love'": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband" attended?

4. 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?

5. In the essay "Where Do We Go from Here?", continual progress for African-Americans is claimed to be a what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Carol Anderson refute the idea that the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was a complete triumph for black advancement in America?

2. What are the examples the author of "Where Do We Go from Here" uses in order to prove that African-Americans are currently living through a second Nadir?

3. What reasons does Jesmyn Ward provide for her claim that it is "impossible for most black Americans to construct full family trees" (91)?

4. For what purpose had Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, the author of "The Weight," come to London just before her acquaintance convinces her to visit James Baldwin's former house in France?

5. What is Wendy S. Walters's central goal within the narrative of her memoir "Lonely in America" and from what source does she draw the idea for this goal?

6. How did a quote within James Baldwin's book The Fire Next Time inspire Jesmyn ward to put together her own collection to create The Fire This Time?

7. What is the main claim being made regarding a Nadir within the essay "Where Do We Go from Here"?

8. What stories and experiences does Jesmyn Ward provide to the reader in order to demonstrate the depth of her identification with the black identity?

9. How is Jesmyn Ward's experience of receiving her genetic ancestry results different from the experiences of her parents?

10. What are the three things Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah says are the only things she knows about being black in America?

(see the answer keys)

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