Black history milestones and firsts
From the Underground Railroad to the space shuttle, this round covers the firsts and turning points that anchor any Black history quiz.
Q1.Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955 in which Alabama city?Tap to reveal
Answer: Montgomery
Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 381 days and ended bus segregation there.
Q2.From the steps of which monument did Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Lincoln Memorial
The speech capped the March on Washington, attended by roughly 250,000 people.
Q3.Who was the first Black justice of the US Supreme Court?Tap to reveal
Answer: Thurgood Marshall
Appointed in 1967, Marshall had earlier won Brown v. Board of Education as an NAACP lawyer.
Q4.Juneteenth commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of freedom in which Texas city?Tap to reveal
Answer: Galveston
Union general Gordon Granger's order reached Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Q5.Which formerly enslaved woman became the most famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad?Tap to reveal
Answer: Harriet Tubman
Tubman made roughly 13 rescue missions and never lost a passenger, by her own account.
Q6.Who was the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress?Tap to reveal
Answer: Shirley Chisholm
Elected in 1968, she also ran for a major party's presidential nomination in 1972 under the slogan "Unbought and Unbossed."
Q7.Who became the first African American woman to travel to space in 1992?Tap to reveal
Answer: Mae Jemison
Jemison, a physician and engineer, flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour.
Q8.Which NASA mathematician, portrayed in Hidden Figures, verified the trajectory for John Glenn's 1962 orbital flight?Tap to reveal
Answer: Katherine Johnson
Glenn personally asked for "the girl" to check the computer's numbers before he would fly.
Q9.Madam C.J. Walker, often called America's first self-made female millionaire, built her fortune in which industry?Tap to reveal
Answer: Hair care and cosmetics
Her company employed thousands of Black women as sales agents in the early 1900s.
Q10.Who became the first Black president of South Africa in 1994?Tap to reveal
Answer: Nelson Mandela
Mandela was elected four years after his release from 27 years in prison.
Q11.Six-year-old Ruby Bridges integrated an all-white elementary school in 1960 in which city?Tap to reveal
Answer: New Orleans
Federal marshals escorted her daily — a scene immortalized in Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With."
Music, film and culture
Motown, hip-hop's birthplace and a stack of Oscar and Grammy firsts. This round rewards anyone whose playlists span seven decades.
Q1.Berry Gordy founded Motown Records in 1959 in which city?Tap to reveal
Answer: Detroit
The label's headquarters was nicknamed "Hitsville U.S.A." — Motown is short for "Motor Town."
Q2.Aretha Franklin's signature hit "Respect" was originally written and recorded by which soul singer?Tap to reveal
Answer: Otis Redding
Franklin's 1967 rework flipped the perspective and added the famous R-E-S-P-E-C-T spelling.
Q3.Who was the first Black performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actor?Tap to reveal
Answer: Sidney Poitier
Poitier won in 1964 for Lilies of the Field.
Q4.Who was the first Black performer to win any Academy Award?Tap to reveal
Answer: Hattie McDaniel
She won Best Supporting Actress in 1940 for Gone with the Wind.
Q5.Halle Berry became the first Black woman to win Best Actress for which film?Tap to reveal
Answer: Monster's Ball
Her 2002 win remains the only Best Actress Oscar won by a Black woman to date.
Q6.In Black Panther, what is the rare metal that powers the nation of Wakanda?Tap to reveal
Answer: Vibranium
The 2018 film became the first superhero movie ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.
Q7.Who was the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?Tap to reveal
Answer: Toni Morrison
Morrison won in 1993; her novel Beloved had earlier won the Pulitzer Prize.
Q8.Hip-hop's birth is widely traced to a 1973 Bronx house party thrown by which DJ?Tap to reveal
Answer: DJ Kool Herc
Herc's back-to-school jam at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue pioneered the extended breakbeat.
Q9.The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill made history in 1999 as the first hip-hop album to win which Grammy?Tap to reveal
Answer: Album of the Year
Hill took home five Grammys that night, a record for a female artist at the time.
Q10.Which artist holds the all-time record for the most Grammy Awards won?Tap to reveal
Answer: Beyoncé
She passed the previous record of 31 wins in 2023 and has kept extending it since.
Sports legends and barrier breakers
Number 42, the Rumble in the Jungle and a 9.58-second sprint. This round covers the athletes whose stories go far beyond the box score.
Q1.Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947 with which team?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Brooklyn Dodgers
Robinson won Rookie of the Year that season and the NL MVP two years later.
Q2.Which jersey number, worn by Jackie Robinson, is retired across all of Major League Baseball?Tap to reveal
Answer: 42
Every player wears 42 on Jackie Robinson Day each April 15.
Q3.Jesse Owens won four gold medals at which Olympic Games?Tap to reveal
Answer: Berlin 1936
Owens dominated in sprints, long jump and relay in front of Hitler's regime.
Q4.Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman in 1974's "Rumble in the Jungle," held in which African country?Tap to reveal
Answer: Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Ali's rope-a-dope strategy exhausted Foreman before an eighth-round knockout in Kinshasa.
Q5.What was Muhammad Ali's birth name?Tap to reveal
Answer: Cassius Clay
He changed his name in 1964 after joining the Nation of Islam, shortly after winning the heavyweight title.
Q6.How many Grand Slam singles titles did Serena Williams win?Tap to reveal
Answer: 23
That's the most by any player, man or woman, in the Open Era.
Q7.Who became the first Black player in the National Hockey League in 1958?Tap to reveal
Answer: Willie O'Ree
O'Ree debuted with the Boston Bruins while legally blind in one eye — a secret he kept for years.
Q8.Who was the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl?Tap to reveal
Answer: Doug Williams
Williams was named MVP of Super Bowl XXII in January 1988 after throwing four touchdown passes in one quarter.
Q9.What is Usain Bolt's 100-meter world record time, set in 2009?Tap to reveal
Answer: 9.58 seconds
Bolt set the mark at the Berlin World Championships, and it still stands.
Funny black trivia questions and answers
The championship round: catchphrases, classic sitcoms and one very famous pageant mistake. These funny black trivia questions and answers are made for the moment the family reunion gets competitive.
Q1.The dismissive phrase "Bye, Felicia" comes from which 1995 Ice Cube comedy?Tap to reveal
Answer: Friday
Ice Cube's character delivers the line to a neighbor named Felisha asking to borrow a car.
Q2.Which comedian famously announced the wrong Miss Universe winner live on air in 2015?Tap to reveal
Answer: Steve Harvey
Harvey crowned Miss Colombia before correcting to Miss Philippines minutes later — and he still jokes about it.
Q3.What was Steve Urkel's signature catchphrase on Family Matters?Tap to reveal
Answer: "Did I do that?"
Jaleel White's nerdy neighbor was meant to appear in one episode and ended up taking over the show.
Q4.The Carlton Dance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is performed to which Tom Jones song?Tap to reveal
Answer: "It's Not Unusual"
Alfonso Ribeiro said he built the dance from Courteney Cox in the "Dancing in the Dark" video and Eddie Murphy's "white man dance."
Q5.According to the theme song, in which city was the Fresh Prince "born and raised"?Tap to reveal
Answer: West Philadelphia
One little fight on the playground later, he was on a plane to his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.
Q6.In Coming to America, Prince Akeem travels to Queens from which fictional African kingdom?Tap to reveal
Answer: Zamunda
Eddie Murphy reprised the role 33 years later in the 2021 sequel Coming 2 America.
Q7.What is the name of the McDonald's knock-off restaurant where Akeem works in Coming to America?Tap to reveal
Answer: McDowell's
Owner Cleo McDowell insists the Big Mick is totally different — his buns have no seeds.
Q8.Which filmmaker plays the tough, wig-wearing grandma Madea in a long-running movie franchise?Tap to reveal
Answer: Tyler Perry
Perry created Madea on stage in 1999 and has played her across more than a dozen films.
Q9.Snoop Dogg co-hosted a hit cooking show with which unlikely lifestyle guru?Tap to reveal
Answer: Martha Stewart
Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party premiered in 2016 and earned an Emmy nomination.
Q10.Which Lil Nas X song spent a record 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2019?Tap to reveal
Answer: "Old Town Road"
The Billy Ray Cyrus remix helped it break the all-time record for weeks at No. 1.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good topics for black trivia questions?
Mix four lanes: Black history milestones and firsts, music and film, sports legends, and pop-culture comedy. It keeps grandparents and teenagers equally competitive.
Are there funny black trivia questions and answers in this set?
Yes — the final round is all comedy: Friday, Fresh Prince, Family Matters, Coming to America and the Steve Harvey Miss Universe moment.
Can I use these questions for Black History Month or Juneteenth events?
Absolutely. The history round works as a classroom or church quiz on its own, and every answer includes a one-line fact you can expand into a discussion.
Can I play this black trivia quiz online?
Yes — this page includes a free interactive quiz widget, and the Trivio.NET app adds daily quizzes plus live trivia battles with friends.
How hard are these questions?
Mixed by design: the history and funny rounds are approachable for most players, while the music-firsts and sports questions separate the trivia veterans.
