Black History 2021/2022 Super Quiz: A Full Year of Trivia

President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday,  June 17, 2021, establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery, following a bipartisan Congressional bill. The legislation made Juneteenth the 12th federal holiday. Under the new law, the federal holiday is known as Juneteenth National Independence Day in all 50 states.

Before it became a federal holiday, how many states recognized Juneteenth?

Until June 2021, 48 states and Washington, D.C., recognize Juneteenth as either a state holiday or ceremonial holiday. Hawaii passed legislation on April 27, 2021, to acknowledge the holiday, but it is still waiting for Hawaii's governor to sign the bill into law. South Dakota had not recognized the holiday before it became federal.

Singer Beyoncé won her 28th Grammy on Sunday, Mar. 14, 2021, passing the bluegrass musician Alison Krauss to become the most honored woman in the Grammys history. 

Bonus Fact:

Ella Fitzgerald was the first woman to win multiple Grammys. She won two at the very first Grammy Awards ceremony in 1958.

Sidney Poitier was the first African American and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. He died on Jan. 6, 2022, in Los Angeles. He was 94.

How long did it take for the second African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor?

It took seven years for James Earl Jones to become the second Black person to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 1970. It took some extra three decades for Denzel Washington to win the category in 2001 (for "Training Day"), becoming the second African-American actor to receive the award for Best Actor. The same year saw the first time two African-American performers won Oscars in the same year, the other being Halle Berry, for "Monster's Ball." Berry is the first African-American actress to win Best Actress.

 Cicely Tyson was an Honorary Oscar winner, Oscar nominee, multiple Emmy winner, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, among other honors. After her death on Jan. 28, 2021, her recently published memoir became a #1 bestseller on Amazon. The 432-page book fell “temporarily out of stock,” but an audio version of the biography is still available. Tyson herself narrates in part on the audiobook alongside How To Get Away with Murder co-star Viola Davis.

Photo: The Southern District of New York, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

David Dinkins was the first African American mayor of New York City, serving in office from 1990 to 1993.

Who’s Eric Adams?

On Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, Eric Adams was elected as the 110th mayor of New York and the second Black mayor in the city’s history. He is a former New York City police captain with a decades-long career in public life.

Le Parisien newspaper reported Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021, that singer, dancer, actress, civil rights activist, and perhaps most notable, French Resistance agent, Josephine Baker, will be reburied at the Pantheon monument Paris. Baker is the first Black woman to get France’s highest honor. French President Emmanuel Macron decided on a Nov. 30, 2021, ceremony at the Paris monument, which houses the remains of scientist Marie Curie, the French philosopher Voltaire, writer Victor Hugo, and other French greats.

Singer Drake has logged the most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 232 entrees and 45 Top 10 hits.

Drake 2021 Artist of the Decade Billboard Award

Drake extended his record as the most decorated winner in the history of the Billboard Music Awards to 29 wins Sunday, May 23, 2021, with the Artist of the Decade Award.

R.I.P Mary Wilson, a founding member of The Supremes. Wilson passed away on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, just two days after she published a video commemorating Black History Month and announcing “surprising new songs” that she hoped to have out by her birthday on March 6. Watch Wilson’s final public video message.

With 11 wins, host and producer RuPaul broke the record for the most Emmy wins by a Black person as “RuPaul's Drag Race” won the “outstanding competition program” award at the 2021 Emmys. The series is the most-awarded reality competition show at the Emmys.

What other history was made in the 2021 Emmys?

No contemporary musical had won an Emmy until 2021’s “Hamilton,” as adapted for TV by Disney+. The documented Broadway musical won the 2021 Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) Emmy award, beating out Friends' and The West Wing's reunions, David Byrne’s American Utopia, Bo Burnham’s Inside, and Dave Chappelle’s 8:46.

While written and originally recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, “Respect” became a signature hit for the late Soul-Queen Aretha Franklin, who covered a rearranged version of the song in 1967.

Respect News Facts

“Respect,” a definitive Aretha Franklin-sanctioned biopic starring Jennifer Hudson, opens Friday, Aug 13, 2021. The film traces Franklin’s life from age 10 through 29 when she was already a global icon. Watch the trailer.

“Soul” is the first Pixar movie to have a Black character in the lead. 

Another fact:

It is also the first feature-length Pixar released as a Disney+ Original, without wide theatrical distribution. 

Oxford Languages define colorism as prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.

Colorism in the News:

“In the Heights,” a big-budget film based on the musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, was called out for its short supply of dark-skinned, Black Latinos in leading roles. Miranda, best known as the creator of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” and a longtime champion of including Latinos in the arts, recognized his own short-sightedness in addressing colorism and issued an apology.

While according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, blackfishing is Scottish for the illegal catching of blackfish, the term gained a very different meaning in recent years. It describes the behavior of people pretending to have darker skin on social media - through hair, makeup, and accessories, to blur their actual racial background.

Blackfishing News Fact:

Rapper Iggy Azalea met accusations of Blackfishing in her latest music video for "I Am the Stripclub." Azalea addressed the issue on her Twitter account, explaining, “I’m the same color as I always am, just in a dimly lit room with red lights. It’s the same makeup from every other part of the video, just with a Smokey eye and different wig.”

“The war on cannabis, which was at its core a war on people in Black and Brown communities, not only caused injustices and increased disparities in our state, it did little to protect public health and safety,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement June 17, 2021, after the State Senate passed the bill.

Old Aunt Jemima originated as a song of field slaves. Aunt Jemima is an image referencing slavery - Nancy Green, born into slavery, portrayed the original Aunt Jemima character.

2021 Fact

On Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021, PepsiCo announced it would change its Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup brand name to Pearl Milling Company.

The Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, overshadowed Georgia’s election of the same day. Nonetheless, it saw historical results. Raphael Warnock became the first African-American to represent Georgia in the United States Senate. He’s also the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate from a Southern state. Jon Ossoff became the first Millennial senator of the US.

Maya Angelou is an American poet and civil rights activist who received the presidential medal of freedom from Barack Obama and the national award of arts from Bill Clinton. She also spoke at the latter’s inauguration.

Maya Angelou Barbie

Mattel issued a Maya Angelou barbie in 2021. The new Barbie, wearing a head-wrap, and floral print dress, joins Rosa Parks, Ella Fitzgerald, and Florence Nightingale in the “Inspiring Women” series of Barbie dolls.

Amanda Gorman’s reading of the inaugural poem on Jan. 20, 2021, made her a household name. Two of her books, which are only available from September 2021, the picture story “The Change We Sing” and a poetry collection featuring “The Hill We Climb,” already occupied the top two spots on Amazon.com. She signed an endorsement deal with IMG Models, whose other clients include Kate Moss.

Anything Else?

She also appeared at the Feb. 7 Super Bowl event in Tampa, Florida.

Amanda Gorman posted "New Day's Lyric" with an accompanying video on Instagram on Dec. 29, 2021, to mark the end of 2021. Her bestselling collection "Call Us What We Carry" came out in early Dec. 2021. "New Day's Lyric" is a five-stanza, 48-line resolution with themes of struggle and healing.

James Weldon Johnson wrote the lyrics for "Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sang" – the song known as the Black National Anthem in the United States - in 1900. His brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, set those lyrics to music for the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1905.

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing News Fact

Vanessa Williams performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for PBS’s holiday broadcast Capitol Fourth celebration on Sunday, July 4, 2021 - Which incited conservative critics, saying the move was divisive and un-American. Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing was also performed on the nationally broadcasted Macy’s New York July 4th, 2021 fireworks show.

Most famous for opposing apartheid in South Africa and helping the country’s peaceful transition to majority rule, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu died on Dec. 26, 2021, at age 90. He had won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize and was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position.

What was Desmond Tutu’s Position on LGBTQ+ issues?

Tutu criticized South African President Thabo Mbeki for denying HIV/AIDS and preventing the government from distributing life-saving treatments. He also compared a proposed law criminalizing homosexuality in Uganda to apartheid South Africa’s laws that banned inter-racial sexual relations.

Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk was South Africa's last white president, ending apartheid in 1994 and becoming the country's first Deputy President - under Nelson Mandela. The two shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. De Klerk died on Nov. 12, 2021, aged 85.

Kunta Kinte is a character in the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. Haley based Kunta Kinte on one of his ancestors: a Gambian man born in 1750, enslaved and taken to America, who died in 1822. “Roots” earned Haley a Pulitzer Prize and was turned into a TV miniseries watched by a record-setting 130 million people in 1977.

Alex Haley News Fact

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, Alex Haley’s legacy is being invoked at the renovated Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center, which opened Friday, Aug 13, 2021. Visitors are welcome to view a short documentary film, visit a galley that includes a life-size replica of a slave ship, and tour the boyhood home of Alex Haley.

Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton were the NBA's first Black players. Lloyd was the first to debut in the NBA on Oct. 31, 1950, with the Washington Capitols. Cooper is the first Black player drafted by an NBA team, and Clifton was the first Black player to sign a contract.

Stevie Wonder wrote the tribute song “Happy Birthday” to urge the government to establish a Martin Luther King Jr. Day formally. King was born Jan. 15, 1929, and his birthday is celebrated in the US on the third Monday every January. Wonder released a video message on MLK day 2021  as an open letter to King, who was assassinated in 1968. The legendary musician is urging the incoming Biden administration to form a national commission on equality in the letter.

• Listen to Stevie Wonder on Amazon Music Unlimited. 
• Read or listen to Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Audiobook, Kindle, or print.

Former Us President Barack Obama celebrated his 60th birthday Saturday, Aug 7, 2021, in an outdoor gathering of about 200 family members and close friends in his 29-acre $12 million Martha's Vineyard estate.

Obama 60th Bash Fact

At Obama's 60th birthday party, the guest list included Gayle King, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Steven Spielberg, and performances from John Legend, H.E.R., and Erykah Badu. The Obamas uninvited some guests to scale down the event due to the surge of the coronavirus delta variant. Among the uninvited: David Axelrod, Larry David, and talk-show hosts David Letterman and Conan O'Brien. Stephen Colbert was, however, spotted at the event.

Jessica Watkins, 33, is the first Black woman to live and work at the International Space Station. She will join a SpaceX crew-4 mission after April 2022, marking her first flight into space.

Who was the first Black person on the International Space Station?

Victor Glover, part of SpaceX's Crew-2 mission that launched in November 2020, became the first Black astronaut to join the station crew. Others have visited the space station for a shorter period. A total of 248 people have visited the 21-year-old ISS. Seven of them have been Black.

Who were the first Black astronauts?

In 1983, Guion Bluford became the first Black astronaut to travel to space. Mae Jemison followed nine years later and became the first Black woman in space.

Who was the youngest American to launch into space?

29-year-old childhood bone-cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux became the youngest American to travel to space on Sept. 16, 2021, after SpaceX launched the world's first all-civilian human spaceflight into Earth's orbit. She is also the first person in space with a prosthesis, a titanium rod in her left leg.

Terence Blanchard became the first Black composer whose work was performed by the New York Metropolitan Opera on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, when the Met Opera returned from its 566 days covid-19 time-out. An audience of about 4,000 watched the performance of "Fire Shut Up in My Bones," the first staged work in the house since March 2020 and the first by a Black composer in the company's 138 years of history. The return was simulcast live to video screens in Times Square and Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park.

What is "Fire Shut Up in My Bones"?

"Fire Shut Up in My Bones," with an all-Black cast, premiered in 2019 at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and was brought to the Met as part of a co-production that will travel to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in March and Los Angeles Opera in a future season. The final Met performance of "Fire Shut Up" will be broadcast to movie theaters worldwide on Oct. 23, 2021.