The 2023 Super Black History Quiz: A Full Year of Trivia

Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black female justice in the Supreme Court’s 200-plus-year history. She is the second Supreme Court justice since 1870 to be confirmed without a single vote from the Senate minority party. The first is Amy Coney Barrett.

But what are Ketanji Brown Jackson’s credentials?

In late February 2022, FOX News scandalist Tucker Carlson demanded that Jackson reveal her LSAT scores - implying she hasn’t had the credential needed to be a Supreme Court Justice. In actuality, Jackson attended Harvard Law School, where she was a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. She graduated in 1996 with a Juris Doctor cum laude, spent 15 years as a public defender, and eight years as a trial court judge in the US district court in DC. On the other hand, Amy Coney Barrett holds the records for the first Supreme Court justice without an Ivy League degree since the 2010 retirement of John Paul Stevens and the only Supreme Justice who did not receive her Juris Doctor from Harvard or Yale.

The House Democrats formally elected Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York to be their leader on Jan. 3, 2023, uniting around the liberal lawyer to fight a Republican majority. At 52, Jeffries represents a generational shift for House Democrats after two decades under Nancy Pelosi. He's the first black politician to lead either party in Congress. In the first rounds of voting for speaker, Jeffries got more support than the main Republican candidate, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California - but not enough to win.

On March 29, 2022, President Biden signed a bill making lynching a federal crime for the first time in the United States. The law is named for Emmett Till, the Black boy murdered in Mississippi in 1955. The anti-lynching movement first introduced legislation to criminalize lynching in 1935, but it was repeatedly blocked more than 200 times. The bill, which makes lynching punishable by up to 30 years in prison, finally passed the House in Feb. 2022 with only three lawmakers opposing it and passed the Senate without objection on March 28.

A bill legalizing gay marriage was signed into law by President Biden on Dec. 13, 2022. The Respect for Marriage Act protects gay marriages if the US Supreme Court reverses its 2015 decision to legalize same-sex unions nationwide. Lawmakers from both parties attended the ceremony. During the ceremony, the White House played Biden's 2012 television interview in which he unexpectedly supported gay marriage. Obama publicly endorsed the concept three days after that interview.

On May 5, 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Karine Jean-Pierre, 44, to replace Jen Psaki as spokeswoman, making her the first Black woman and first openly gay person to hold the high-profile position. Psaki’s last day as press secretary will be May 13. She is expected to take an on-air role with MSNBC.

On Dec. 6, 2022, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock defeated his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, to secure a 51-seat Democratic majority and a full six-year term as the first Black senator from Georgia. Warnock became Georgia's first Black senator after winning a runoff election in 2021.

How many Black senators have been elected to the US Senate?

Three senators currently serving in the Senate are Black: Warnock, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina. Historically, only 11 Black people have served in the United States Senate, out of more than 2,000 senators.

Karen Bass is the first female and second black mayor of Los Angeles. Vice President Kamala Harris swore her in on Dec. 11, 2022. Her predecessor was Eric Garcetti, LA's first Jewish mayor and second consecutive Mexican American. Bass said her first act as mayor would be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness.

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the white major baseball leagues on Apr. 15, 1947, when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. He was the first African American in the MLB since African-Americans had been excluded from major league baseball in 1884. Robinson was also the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o'Nuts, and helped establish the African-American-owned Freedom National Bank in Harlem, New York, to help Black citizens receive essential loans.

What's the Jackie Robinson Museum?

The new Jackie Robinson Museum in Lower Manhattan is New York City's first museum dedicated mainly to the civil rights movement. The venue opens on Sept. 5, 2022.

Bill Russell was the first Black coach in any North American professional sports, in his position as player-coach for the Boston Celtics from 1966 to ‘69, and the first to win a championship. Russell died on July 31, 2022, at the age of 88.

During the original "Star Trek"'s third season, in 1968, Nichelle Nichols' character, Lt. Uhura, and William Shatner's Capt. James Kirk shared the first interracial kiss between a white man and a Black woman to be broadcast on a US TV series. Nichols died on July 30, 2022, at the age of 89.

Serena Williams's third-round loss to Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic on Sept. 2, 2022, at the US Open, was the most-watched tennis telecast in ESPN's 43-year history, peaking with 6.9 million viewers. Serena Williams's defeat to Venus Williams at the 2001 US Open finals was watched by 22.7 Million viewers  - but was broadcasted on CBS prime-time television.

The Emancipator was America's first newspaper dedicated to ending slavery, founded in 1820 in Tennessee. A joint effort by Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe revives the historical publication and reimagines it on digital platforms. The new online Emancipator will feature written and video opinion pieces, multimedia series, and virtual talks to "reframe" the national conversation around racial injustice. Take a peek.

During the original "Star Trek"'s third season, in 1968, Nichelle Nichols' character, Lt. Uhura, and William Shatner's Capt. James Kirk shared the first interracial kiss between a white man and a Black woman to be broadcast on a US TV series. Nichols died on July 30, 2022, at the age of 89.

The 1980s singer Irene Cara, who sang the theme songs to "Flashdance" and "Fame," passed away on Nov. 25, 2022. She was 63. Her "Flashdance" song "What a Feeling" earned her an Oscar and a Grammy in 1984. She sang the title track and played Coco Hernandez in the film version of Fame (1980).

Coolio's last US top-40 hit, 1997's "C U When U Get There," is based on Pachelbel's 17th century "Canon in D Major." Known for hits such as "Gangsta's Paradise" (based on Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise"), the West Coast rapper passed away on Sept. 28, 2022, in Los Angeles. He was 59.

In 1975 Adam Wade became the first Black host of a network television game show - CBS's weekly afternoon game show, "Musical Chairs." The show was canceled after less than five months. Wade, better known for his singing and acting careers, died on July 7, 2022, at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 87.

The 29-year-old star of Netflix's hit "Sex Education," Ncuti Gatwa, born in Rwanda, will become the first Black actor to play the lead role in the BBC's "Doctor Who." He is taking over from Jodie Whittaker, the first woman in the role, as the 14th incarnation of the Time Lord in Oct. 2022, the BBC announced on May 8, 2022. It's worth mentioning that Jo Martin appeared as an unnumbered incarnation of The Doctor in three episodes in 2020 and 2021, making her the first non-white person to play the role. Doctor Who famously regenerates, allowing different actors to play the role since the series was first broadcast in 1963.

Silk Sonic is the retro soul-funk project of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak (born Brandon Paak Anderson). The group won song of the year for "Leave the Door Open" at the 2022 Grammys. The song, a tribute to smooth '70s soul, also won the record of the year trophy and the best R&B song award. Silk Sonic tied Jazmine Sullivan for best R&B performance.

Which all-time Grammy records does Bruno Mars hold?

The wins in both major categories make Mars the only artist, along with Paul Simon, to win record of the year three times. He also tied the record for most Song of the Year wins with two - an achievement shared with Henry Mancini, U2, and Adele.

With a Tony win for "A Strange Loop," Jennifer Hudson, one of the show's co-producers, joined on June 12, 2022, the select group of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (aka EGOT). Hudson won an Oscar in 2007 for her role in "Dreamgirls," two Grammys for the cast album of 2015's "The Color Purple," and a 2021 Daytime Emmy Award for an interactive animated short for which she was an executive producer, "Baba Yaga." The EGOT club includes Rita Moreno, John Legend, Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, and 16 others.

Alopecia, AKA spot baldness, is an autoimmune disease in which hair is lost from some or all body areas, often resulting in bald spots about the size of a coin. People with the condition are generally otherwise healthy, with no obvious trigger for the disease.

Does Jada Pinkett Smith suffer from alopecia?

Screenshot: 94th Academy Awards / ABC

Jada Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 that she was diagnosed with alopecia. She has often discussed hair loss challenges on Instagram and other social media platforms. Pinkett came to the 2022 Oscars alongside her husband, Will Smith, the Best Leading Actor award winner for "King Richard." When Chris Rock took verbal aim at Pinkett Smith's shaved head from the stage, referencing the 1997 film G.I. Jane in which Demi Moore shaved her head, Will Smith took a swing at him. Smith later apologized.

Will Smith's first feature film since being banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years is the slavery-era thriller Emancipation, released in theaters on Dec. 2, 2022, and heading to Apple TV+ on Dec. 9.

What is 2022's Emancipation movie?

Antoine Fuqua directed this $120 million film, which tells the true story of Gordon, or "Whipped Peter," who escaped a Louisiana plantation in 1860 and walked to the north to join the Union army. Watch the trailer.

Beyoncé has nine Grammy nominations this year, tying Jay-Z with 88 nominations throughout their careers - making them both the most-nominated artists in Grammy history.

Which Grammy nominations did Beyoncé receive in 2023?

Beyoncé's hit song Break My Soul is nominated for both song and record of the year. Renaissance is up for album of the year. Additionally, Beyoncé was nominated in the dance/electronica and R&B categories.

Who holds the record for most Grammy wins?

Beyoncé holds 28 Grammy awards. If she wins more than three in the 2023 ceremony, she could surpass conductor Georg Solti's 31 awards. Currently, she shares second place with Quincy Jones.

Marvel Studios unveiled the first trailer for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" at Comic-Con on July 23, 2022, in San Diego. The sequel's release date is Nov. 11, 2022. Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther in the original film, died in Aug. 2020. Marvel decided not to recast him.

What happens in the sequel?

Black Panther's younger sister, Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, becomes the new Black Panther in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," as revealed at the end of the film's Oct. 3, 2022 trailer. Watch the trailer.

Zendaya has made Emmys history with her second win for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for Euphoria at the 2022 Emmys. The 26-year-old became the youngest two-time winner for acting in Emmy's history and the first Black woman to win the Emmy for lead actress in a drama series twice.

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.

Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black female justice in the Supreme Court’s 200-plus-year history. She is the second Supreme Court justice since 1870 to be confirmed without a single vote from the Senate minority party. The first is Amy Coney Barrett.

But what are Ketanji Brown Jackson’s credentials?

In late February 2022, FOX News scandalist Tucker Carlson demanded that Jackson reveal her LSAT scores - implying she hasn’t had the credential needed to be a Supreme Court Justice. In actuality, Jackson attended Harvard Law School, where she was a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. She graduated in 1996 with a Juris Doctor cum laude, spent 15 years as a public defender, and eight years as a trial court judge in the US district court in DC. On the other hand, Amy Coney Barrett holds the records for the first Supreme Court justice without an Ivy League degree since the 2010 retirement of John Paul Stevens and the only Supreme Justice who did not receive her Juris Doctor from Harvard or Yale.

On March 29, 2022, President Biden signed a bill making lynching a federal crime for the first time in the United States. The law is named for Emmett Till, the Black boy murdered in Mississippi in 1955. The anti-lynching movement first introduced legislation to criminalize lynching in 1935, but it was repeatedly blocked more than 200 times. The bill, which makes lynching punishable by up to 30 years in prison, finally passed the House in Feb. 2022 with only three lawmakers opposing it and passed the Senate without objection on March 28.

On May 5, 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Karine Jean-Pierre, 44, to replace Jen Psaki as spokeswoman, making her the first Black woman and first openly gay person to hold the high-profile position. Psaki’s last day as press secretary will be May 13. She is expected to take an on-air role with MSNBC.

In 1975 Adam Wade became the first Black host of a network television game show - CBS's weekly afternoon game show, "Musical Chairs." The show was canceled after less than five months. Wade, better known for his singing and acting careers, died on July 7, 2022, at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 87.

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.

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the white major baseball leagues on Apr. 15, 1947, when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. He was the first African American in the MLB since African-Americans had been excluded from major league baseball in 1884. Robinson was also the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o'Nuts, and helped establish the African-American-owned Freedom National Bank in Harlem, New York, to help Black citizens receive essential loans.

What's the Jackie Robinson Museum?

The new Jackie Robinson Museum in Lower Manhattan is New York City's first museum dedicated mainly to the civil rights movement. The venue opens on Sept. 5, 2022.

Bill Russell was the first Black coach in any North American professional sports, in his position as player-coach for the Boston Celtics from 1966 to ‘69, and the first to win a championship. Russell died on July 31, 2022, at the age of 88.

During the original "Star Trek"'s third season, in 1968, Nichelle Nichols' character, Lt. Uhura, and William Shatner's Capt. James Kirk shared the first interracial kiss between a white man and a Black woman to be broadcast on a US TV series. Nichols died on July 30, 2022, at the age of 89.

Grammy-winning artist India.Arie posted the hashtag #DeleteSpotify on her Instagram account after a video emerged showing Rogan repeatedly using the N-word. Rogan apologized on Feb. 5, 2022, saying that the slurs were the "most regretful and shameful thing" he has ever had to address and that he hasn't used the N-word in years.

While LeBron James, between ages 22 and 36, was the youngest NBA player to reach 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, and 35,000 points in his career, Stephen Curry is the youngest NBA player to reach 3,000 3-Point Field Goals - an achievement he met in December 2021, at the age of 33 years, 289 days.

What happened in the 2022 NBA Finals?

On June 16, 2022, Stephen Curry won his first NBA Finals MVP award. He is the only player in NBA history to average at least five 3-pointers per game in the Finals - repeating the record in 2018 and 2022. Curry's 31 3-pointers in 2022 were the most in a six-game series in any NBA Finals.

LeBron James became the first NBA player to record 10,000 career assists, rebounds, and points, on March 13, 2022. He is the seventh player in NBA history to reach 10,000 assists, one of seven players who have earned 30,000 points, one of 42 players to reach 10,000 career rebounds, and the only one in NBA history to pass the career 10K in all three.

Serena Williams's third-round loss to Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic on Sept. 2, 2022, at the US Open, was the most-watched tennis telecast in ESPN's 43-year history, peaking with 6.9 million viewers. Serena Williams's defeat to Venus Williams at the 2001 US Open finals was watched by 22.7 Million viewers  - but was broadcasted on CBS prime-time television.

"The Harder They Fall," featuring Regina King, Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, and LaKeith Stanfield, is a western produced for Netflix by Jay-Z (credited as Shawn Carter), based on real Black characters from the Old West. On Jan. 18, 2022, the film was nominated for 12 NAACP Image Awards, including for best picture. The two-hour awards show will be broadcast on BET on Feb. 26, 2022.

You’re looking at the Aboriginal flag, which has been recognized as an official flag of Australia since 1995. The Australian government said on Jan. 25, 2022, it had acquired copyright to the Aboriginal flag from its creator, indigenous artist Harold Thomas for $20 million. The flag can now be freely used, resolving a commercial dispute that had restricted sporting teams and Aboriginal communities from reproducing the image.

The Emancipator was America's first newspaper dedicated to ending slavery, founded in 1820 in Tennessee. A joint effort by Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe revives the historical publication and reimagines it on digital platforms. The new online Emancipator will feature written and video opinion pieces, multimedia series, and virtual talks to "reframe" the national conversation around racial injustice. Take a peek.

Silk Sonic is the retro soul-funk project of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak (born Brandon Paak Anderson). The group won song of the year for "Leave the Door Open" at the 2022 Grammys. The song, a tribute to smooth '70s soul, also won the record of the year trophy and the best R&B song award. Silk Sonic tied Jazmine Sullivan for best R&B performance.

Which all-time Grammy records does Bruno Mars hold?

The wins in both major categories make Mars the only artist, along with Paul Simon, to win record of the year three times. He also tied the record for most Song of the Year wins with two - an achievement shared with Henry Mancini, U2, and Adele.

With a Tony win for "A Strange Loop," Jennifer Hudson, one of the show's co-producers, joined on June 12, 2022, the select group of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (aka EGOT). Hudson won an Oscar in 2007 for her role in "Dreamgirls," two Grammys for the cast album of 2015's "The Color Purple," and a 2021 Daytime Emmy Award for an interactive animated short for which she was an executive producer, "Baba Yaga." The EGOT club includes Rita Moreno, John Legend, Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, and 16 others.

Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) wore all black, including a full face mask, hat, and gloves, at the 2022 BET Awards. The famed rapper came to present Sean "Diddy" Combs (formerly Puff Daddy) with the BET lifetime achievement award along with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds.

Instagram moderators restricted Kanye West's account after the rapper posted a screenshot of a message he had sent Sean "Diddy" Combs, which implied that Combs was "controlled by shadowy, powerful Jewish people." Shortly after Instagram took the post down, Ye tweeted: "I'm a bit sleepy tonight, but when I wake up, I'm going to death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE." Twitter removed the antisemitic tweet on Oct. 8, 2022, for violating their policies.

Is Kanye West antisemitic?

A segment of Kanye West's interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson that went unaired on Oct. 7 was reported on Vice on Oct. 11, 2022. According to the rapper, Planned Parenthood was founded "to control the Jewish population" - an unfounded and antisemitic conspiracy theory. "When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are" (The tribe of Judah was actually one of the 12 tribes of Israel.) West added, "I prefer my children to know Hanukah than Kwanzaa – at least it will include some financial engineering."

Following the suspension of Kanye West's Twitter and Instagram accounts due to antisemitic remarks, Parler's parent company announced on Oct. 17, 2022, that Ye would buy the site for an undisclosed amount. By December, the conservative social media platform confirmed it would not go through with the deal to sell the site to Ye.

What's Parler?

Parler bills itself as a platform for uncancelable free speech. Apple, Amazon, and Google had kicked the right-wing social network off their platforms after the app hosted calls for violence around the time of the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. Apple and Google later restored the site to their app stores, but it has struggled to maintain a large user base.

And the apology?

West joined Piers Morgan's "Uncensored" for an interview out Oct.21, 2022. After a back and forth between Morgan and Ye, the rapper apologized for writing: "I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE", saying he's sorry for the "hurt" and "confusion" it caused families unrelated to his anger. Watch the clip.

On Oct. 3, 2022, Kanye West wore a shirt with "White Lives Matter" printed on the back during his surprise Yeezy Season 9 fashion show in Paris. A choir of children from West's Donda Academy performed on the show, as did West's daughter North, modeling entirely black outfits. The phrase "All Lives Matter" was popularized by far-right organizations in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Ye later explained in his Tucker Carlson interview that he meant to state the "obvious."