Q 01/05

Which 1970s blockbuster did Margaret Walker claim in court had borrowed from her novel Jubilee?

A) Roots

B) Ragtime

C) Centennial

D) Trinity

Answer · why

A) Roots

Roots was the target: Walker sued Alex Haley in 1977, but the court found no actionable similarities and dismissed her case.

Q 02/05

Margaret Walker's Jubilee is often read as a Black answer to which hugely popular Civil War novel?

A) So Red the Rose

B) Gone with the Wind

C) Raintree County

D) The Red Badge of Courage

Answer · why

B) Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind made the Old South glamorous in 1936; Jubilee retells the same era through the eyes of an enslaved woman, Vyry.

Q 03/05

Vyry, the enslaved heroine of Margaret Walker's Jubilee, is based on which of Walker's relatives?

A) Her great-aunt

B) Her godmother

C) Her great-grandmother

D) Her mother-in-law

Answer · why

C) Her great-grandmother

Her great-grandmother, Margaret Duggans Ware Brown, lived through slavery and the Civil War. Walker first heard the stories at bedtime as a child.

Q 04/05

Which Harlem Renaissance poet urged teenage Margaret Walker's parents to send her north for college?

A) Countee Cullen

B) Langston Hughes

C) Claude McKay

D) James Weldon Johnson

Answer · why

B) Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was on a speaking tour when the teenager showed him her poems, and he told her family she should study outside the South.

Q 05/05

In Margaret Walker's Jubilee, which group burns down the home Vyry's family builds in Troy, Alabama?

A) Confederate deserters

B) Union Army raiders

C) Railroad land agents

D) The Ku Klux Klan

Answer · why

D) The Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan torches the house, forcing the family onward again before they finally settle near Greenville.