Q 01/05

Which job does teenage Maya fight to win, becoming the first Black woman to hold it in San Francisco?

A) Streetcar conductor

B) Taxicab driver

C) Shipyard welder

D) Railway dining-car cook

Answer · why

A) Streetcar conductor

Streetcar conductor was the post she badgered the transit company into giving her. She worked one semester in uniform, then went back to high school.

Q 02/05

After Mr. Freeman is killed following his trial, young Maya stops speaking to everyone except which family member?

A) Her mother

B) Her grandmother

C) Her uncle

D) Her brother

Answer · why

D) Her brother

Her brother Bailey stays her one confidant because she believes her words caused the death and could kill again. The silence lasts close to five years...

Q 03/05

Which Ohio-born poet wrote the 1899 poem that gave I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings its title?

A) Langston Hughes

B) Countee Cullen

C) Paul Laurence Dunbar

D) Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr.

Answer · why

C) Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar took the image partly from his own job: the iron gratings of the Library of Congress book stacks, baking in the summer sun, remin...

Q 04/05

Which refined neighbour in Stamps coaxes the silent Maya back to speech by lending her books to read aloud?

A) Mrs. Taylor

B) Mrs. Flowers

C) Miss Kirwin

D) Mrs. Henderson

Answer · why

B) Mrs. Flowers

Mrs. Flowers tells Maya that speaking matters, lends her books to read aloud and bakes tea cookies for her, treating the child as someone worth knowin...

Q 05/05

Whose heavyweight title fight do Momma's neighbours crowd into the Store in Stamps to hear on the radio?

A) Sugar Ray Robinson

B) Max Schmeling

C) Joe Louis

D) Jack Dempsey

Answer · why

C) Joe Louis

Joe Louis wins, and for the listeners the bout stands in for the struggle between Black and white America, so his victory feels like proof of their ow...