50 Fun Facts About DEI Trivia: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

What is the 1964 US law outlawing discrimination by race, colour, religion, sex and national origin called?

It was signed by President Lyndon Johnson and also created the agency that enforces workplace fairness.

The landmark 1965 election law was designed to stop what?

It banned tactics like literacy tests that had kept many Black Americans from the polls.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruled racial segregation unconstitutional in what?

It overturned the 'separate but equal' doctrine for education.

The 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia struck down laws banning what?

Richard and Mildred Loving had been prosecuted in Virginia for their marriage.

The 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteed the right to marry to whom nationwide?

Before the ruling, same-sex marriage was already legal in 36 states.

In which year was the ADA, the landmark US law protecting disabled people from discrimination, passed?

It requires public spaces and workplaces to be accessible.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 aimed to abolish wage differences based on what?

It was signed by President John F. Kennedy to tackle the gap between men's and women's pay.

Title IX, passed in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in which area of public life?

It is best known for expanding girls' and women's sports in schools and colleges.

The 1969 uprising seen as the start of the modern LGBTQ rights movement was at which New York bar?

The first Pride marches, a year later, marked its anniversary.

Juneteenth, made a US federal holiday in 2021, commemorates the end of what?

It is celebrated on June 19, the date the news of emancipation reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

Who was the first woman to serve as a US Supreme Court justice?

President Ronald Reagan nominated her in 1981.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second woman and first of which faith on the Supreme Court?

She became a champion of gender equality and a pop-culture icon late in life.

Who was the first African American justice on the US Supreme Court, appointed in 1967?

As a lawyer he had argued and won the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Sonia Sotomayor, appointed in 2009, was the first Supreme Court justice of which heritage?

She grew up in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family.

Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's colour line in 1947 with which team?

His number 42 is now retired across all of baseball.

Sally Ride made history in 1983 by becoming the first American woman to do what?

At 32 she was also the youngest American to fly in space at the time.

In 2021 Kamala Harris became the first woman, first African American and first Asian American to hold which office?

She is of Indian and Jamaican heritage.

Barack Obama, elected in 2008, broke which barrier as the 44th holder of his office?

He served as the 44th president from 2009 to 2017.

Katherine Johnson, honoured in the film Hidden Figures, was a NASA mathematician who calculated what?

John Glenn reportedly asked her to double-check the computer before his orbital flight.

Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 by refusing to do what?

Her quiet act of defiance became a turning point in the civil rights movement.

In which city did Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay US elected officials, serve from 1977?

He served on the city's Board of Supervisors before his assassination in 1978.

Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta co-founded a union to fight for the rights of which group?

Their group grew into the United Farm Workers.

Dolores Huerta is credited with coining which rallying cry, later used by Barack Obama as 'Yes we can'?

It became the motto of the farm workers' movement.

Judith Heumann, 'Mother of the Disability Rights Movement', helped lead which 1977 protest?

The sit-in pushed the government to enforce disability access rules.

Stonewall figure Marsha P. Johnson was a leading early activist for the LGBTQ community and which group in particular?

She helped found an organisation to support homeless transgender youth.

Malala Yousafzai became the youngest ever recipient of which honour in 2014?

She was 17 when she received it, after surviving a Taliban attack in Pakistan.

Who coined the concept of 'intersectionality' in 1989?

She is a law professor who later founded a research centre on the idea at Columbia.

The term 'microaggression' was coined in 1970 by Harvard psychiatrist Chester Pierce to describe what?

He used it for the small slights he saw non-Black Americans direct at African Americans.

Neurodiversity is a framework that treats differences like autism and ADHD as what?

It reframes such traits as part of the normal range of human minds.

The US agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws at work, the EEOC, was created by which act?

It investigates complaints of workplace discrimination.

Which US president first officially recognised Black History Month, in 1976?

It grew out of historian Carter G. Woodson's Negro History Week, begun in 1926.

Women's History Month is observed in the United States during which month?

It lines up with International Women's Day on 8 March.

Pride Month is observed in which month, marking that 1969 uprising's anniversary?

The first Pride marches were held in June 1970.

Hispanic Heritage Month in the US runs from 15 September to which date?

The mid-month start marks the independence anniversaries of several Latin American countries.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is celebrated in which month?

It recognises the contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Native American Heritage Month is observed in the United States in which month?

President George H. W. Bush declared it at the start of the decade.

Disability Pride Month is usually observed in July to mark the signing anniversary of which 1990 law?

The ADA was signed in July 1990.

Which 15-year-old Frenchman developed the raised-dot writing system for the blind in 1824?

He had lost his own sight in a childhood accident.

Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, became the first deafblind person in the US to do what?

Her teacher Anne Sullivan helped her learn to communicate.

The NFL's 'Rooney Rule', adopted in 2003, requires teams to do what?

It is named after Steelers owner Dan Rooney and has inspired similar policies in other industries.

American Sign Language (ASL) is most closely related to the sign language of which country?

That surprises many people, since spoken American English comes from British English.

Frederick Douglass, a leading 19th-century abolitionist, first gained fame through his skill at what?

He had escaped slavery in Maryland in 1838 before becoming a national leader of the abolitionist movement.

Which president's 1961 executive order first used the legal term 'affirmative action'?

Executive Order 10925 required government contractors to treat applicants and employees fairly regardless of race, creed, colour or national origin.

In which 1978 Supreme Court case did diversity first become a constitutional-law factor in admissions?

The Court held racial quotas illegal but allowed race to count as a 'plus factor' when a university sought a diverse class.

Which 2023 Supreme Court case rejected race-based affirmative action at colleges?

The Court held that such programmes lacked 'sufficiently focused and measurable' objectives; DEI job numbers had peaked earlier that year.

In the United Kingdom, which three-letter abbreviation is commonly used instead of DEI?

It stands for equality, diversity and inclusion; other variants include DEIB, adding 'belonging', and JEDI, adding 'justice'.

In the DEIB variant of the acronym, what does the added B stand for?

Extensions of the phrase have also folded in accessibility and justice, giving frameworks such as JEDI.

Which senator, managing the 1964 anti-discrimination bill, vowed to 'eat my hat' if it led to quotas?

Humphrey insisted the bill 'would prohibit preferential treatment for any particular group'; he became Johnson's running mate that autumn.

The 1936 Randolph–Sheppard Act gave federal purchasing preference to goods made by whom?

The 1971 Javits–Wagner–O'Day Act widened it to people with severe disabilities; the programme is now known as AbilityOne.

Per The Economist, what happened to hiring for 'diversity' or 'inclusion' job titles after 2010?

Time magazine said the DEI industry had 'exploded' by 2019, and it grew larger still after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.