Black History Trivia | Dorky Geeky Nerdy Trivia Podcast

Here we go with some history trivia. February is Black History Month and it’s long since time I had an episode honoring the accomplishments of Black Americans and their history here in the US.

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Kamala D. Harris served as the forty-ninth vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025—the first woman in American history to hold the office. She began her career in the Alameda County district attorney’s office before being elected district attorney of San Francisco, where her Back on Track program became a national model for reducing recidivism. As California’s attorney general, Harris prosecuted transnational gangs, big banks that defrauded homeowners, and for-profit colleges that targeted students and veterans. She defended the Affordable Care Act, fought for marriage equality, and pioneered the nation’s first open-data initiative in the criminal justice system. In the United States Senate, Harris fought for civil, immigrant, and voting rights, and gained national recognition for her incisive questioning in committee hearings. As vice president, she led efforts to strengthen global alliances and address child poverty, gun violence, student debt, maternal health, economic opportunity, and reproductive rights—casting more tiebreaking votes than any vice president in history, including for pandemic relief and the largest climate investment ever. Throughout her career, she has always fought for the only client she has ever had: the people.

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Episode Intro

Here we go with some history trivia. February is Black History Month and it’s long since time I had an episode honoring the accomplishments of Black Americans and their history here in the US.

For those listening who have left comments about my trivia being too political…um…tough. Trivia is trivia. If something in history makes you uncomfortable, that’s up to you to address.

History is neither good nor bad. It’s what happened. The good and the bad come from what we learn from it and whether we repeat the mistakes of our forebears.

So, that’s my soap box. I’m your host Brian Rollins and this is Episode 367 of the Dorky Geeky Nerdy Trivia Podcast.

Let’s get started.

The Dorky Round

What African American athlete won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin?
a. Jesse Owens
Who was the first Black president of the United States?
a. Barack Obama
Who delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963?
a. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Which tennis star won 23 Grand Slam singles titles including the Australian Open in 2017 when she was pregnant?
a. Serena Williams
Which legislation outlawed discrimination in 1964?
a. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The first interracial kiss on US television was between William Shatner and what actress?
a. Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura.
What civil rights group, co-founded by W.E.B Du Bois, was founded in 1909?
a. NAACP.
What is the name given to the laws, introduced in Southern states, to enforce racial segregation?
a. Jim Crow Laws
Who was the first African American to hold the office of Vice President of the United States?
a. Kamala Harris
Which baseball player broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974?
a. Hank Aaron

The Geeky Round

What US president, in 1976, was the first to recognize Black History Month?
a. Gerald Ford
Which Supreme Court case in 1954 ended segregation in public schools?
a. Brown v Board of Education
Which singer became the first African American woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
a. Aretha Franklin
What boxer was arrested for refusing to join the Army after being drafted in 1967?
a. Muhammad Ali. Ali considered himself a conscientious objector saying “Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.”
What Alabama city was location of a church firebombing in 1963 that killed four girls?
a. Birmingham
Who was the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice?
a. Thurgood Marshall
Who was the first African American to win an Academy Award?
a. Hattie McDaniel. She won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind.
Who was the first African American Secretary of State?
a. Colin Powell
Which African American actor starred in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and To Sir, With Love all in the same year?
a. Sidney Poitier
Which poet wrote Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise?
a. Maya Angelou

The Nerdy Round

Who sang “Strange Fruit,” a haunting protest against lynching?
a. Billie Holiday
Known as “Bloody Sunday”, the 1965 march connected what two Alabama cities?
a. Selma and Montgomery
Which abolitionist published “The North Star” newspaper?
a. Frederick Douglass
Who was the first African American woman elected to Congress in 1968?
a. Shirley Chisholm
Who was the first African American woman astronaut in space?
a. Mae Jemison. She also had a cameo on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Garrett Morgan invented what roadway lifesaver?
a. The traffic light. He patented it in 1923.
“Black Wall Street” in what city was home to one of the biggest race-motivated massacres in US history?
a. Tulsa, OK. 39 people were killed and more than 800 were admitted to hospitals after white supremacists attacked in 1921.
Published annually from 1936 to 1966, what guide helped African Americans find safe places to stay in the era of Jim Crow laws?
a. The Negro Motorist Green Book.
What author and civil rights activist wrote the 1953 novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain?
a. James Baldwin
What author gave us the Xenogenesis series?
a. Octavia E Butler

Episode Conclusion

And that’s all I have for Black History Trivia. Hopefully this middle-aged white guy did OK. Let me know on social media or Spotify. I know you’re not shy.

The past is full of lessons we can learn from. You can either open the history book and learn something from it or use it to beat down your fellow humans. The choice is yours. Choose wisely, my friends.

Next week, I’ve got trivia again. I know, surprise, right? Here’s a clue:

What do the cities of Kabul, Buenos Aires, and Ottawa all have in common?

Geography trivia. You’ve got this gang. If you guess the clue, you could even cram for the test. OK? See you back here on Wednesday.

This was the Dorky Geeky Nerdy Trivia Podcast. If you’d like to help support the show and get extra stuff, consider becoming a patron at Patreon.com/dorkygeekynerdy.

This podcast is written, produced, and hosted by Brian Rollins. If you love audiobooks or are looking to have a book turned into an audiobook, contact me at TheVoicesInMyHead.com.

The theme music is Punchfunk by the band, Punchfunk. Listen to all their music on Spotify.

Thanks for listening.