1. A statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. stands on a pedestal engraved with these words: "His dream liberated [. . .] from itself and began a new day of love, mutual respect, and cooperation." Which city fills in the gap?

a. Birmingham, AL

The statue stands in Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, AL. The park, which predates the civil rights movement, was used by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as a staging point for nonviolent protests in 1963. Protesters, many of them local schoolchildren, massed here to organize for sit-ins, boycotts, and marches; in the streets around the park, law enforcement officers drenched protestors with fire hoses and menaced them with dogs. Photographs of these events created some of the most enduring images of the movement.

Today, the park contains the Freedom Walk, which leads visitors past a number of statues related to the protests, including statues of the dog attacks and children in jail.

2. A 30-foot-tall black granite pinnacle encircled by spirals of steel rises from a pool of water in front of you. You're standing in front of a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. in what city?

d. Seattle, WA

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park in Seattle, WA, honors the memory of King with an abstract sculpture inspired by his final speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop." No specific event in the civil rights movement or in King's life took place at this location; like memorials, events, and other observances nationwide, the Memorial Park sculpture, by Seattle artist Robert Kelly, reminds the surrounding community not of specific historical events but of the assumed spirit of King's life and of the civil rights movement.

3. A well-muscled African American man, wearing only a loincloth, holds his newborn up to the sky. Which city are you visiting now?

d. Atlanta, GA

Sculptor Patrick Morelli's BEHOLD stands in the Peace Plaza in Atlanta, GA. Around the plaza range sites important in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., including his birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached as co-pastor with his father. Newer sites also surround the statue and plaza: The King Center, the location of King's tomb, founded by King's widow, Coretta Scott King, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Visitor Center, maintained by the National Park Service.

4. Surrounded by trees, you walk from one upwelling of water to the next. Each small fountain, set back into a semicircular niche of stone, commemorates a martyr to the civil rights movement. You're strolling through the King memorial in which city?

c. Washington, DC

The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial does not yet exist, but the memorial's design has been completed and ground broken, ceremonially, on the proposed site. When finished, the envisioned four-acre memorial will be positioned along the edge of the Tidal Basin, along a sightline stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to the Jefferson Memorial. Difficulties and controversy have dogged the memorial's progress, including backlash when Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin was chosen to carve the nearly-three-story-tall statue of King that will anchor the memorial.

1. The 54th, led by Robert Gould Shaw, son of prominent (white) abolitionists, consisted largely of former slaves. False.

Glory leads viewers to believe that most (though not all) of the men who served under Shaw (pictured here) were former slaves. Although this conceit adds to the impact of the film—making the 54th's struggle for recognition and an equal place in the war a mirror of the general African American struggle for freedom and equality—it veers far from historical fact. Most of the men who volunteered for the 54th were born freemen from middle-class backgrounds. In fact, two soldiers in the 54th were sons of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

2. The unsuccessful but heroic attack on Fort Wagner, SC, in which the Confederates killed or captured approximately 50% of the regiment, was the last battle in which the 54th served. False.

Glory ends with the 54th's attack on Fort Wagner, and the losses its men suffered. This gives the impression that the regiment dissolved after the Fort Wagner assault. In reality, the 54th went on to fight in several more battles and skirmishes, including the Battle of Olustee (in Florida) the Battle of Honey Hill (in South Carolina), and the Battle of Boykin's Mill (also in South Carolina).

3. The bravery of the 54th at Fort Wagner inspired Congress to authorize raising other African American troops for the Union army. False.

The ending caption in Glory—"As word of their bravery spread, Congress at last authorized the raising of black troops throughout the Union"—is inaccurate. According to historian James M. McPherson, Congress had authorized the mustering of further African American troops "months earlier."

Further, though it might be easy to believe otherwise while watching the film, the 54th was not the first African American regiment—the U.S. government began enlisting African Americans as early as 1862, almost a year before the 54th's formation in March 1863.

4. A member of the regiment was flogged for desertion, in keeping with standard military punishments at the time. False.

One of the most often described moments in the film, when former slave Trip reveals his scarred back before receiving a flogging for desertion, is unlikely to have ever happened in life. Leaving aside the character's fictional nature (like many of Glory's characters, except Shaw, Trip was created for the film), a soldier would not have been flogged as punishment in 1863—according to historian Joseph T. Glatthar, flogging was outlawed in the U.S. military in 1861.

The "national game" was long played in parallel nations, existing side by side in America.

1. An African American played semi-professional baseball on a white team shortly after the game became "the national pastime" following the Civil War.

True. In 1872, Bud Fowler joined a white semipro team in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

2. By 1887, about 30 African Americans were playing on minor league teams with whites.

True. But by the turn of the century, African Americans found themselves no longer able to play on white teams--although black teams continued to frequently play white teams in exhibition games.

3. Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play on a professional major league baseball team.

False. Moses Fleetwood Walker, an Oberlin College star, played for one season, in 1884, with the Toledo team of the American Association, before he was forced out the following year because of racism.

4. When Brooklyn Dodgers president and general manager Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to play, Robinson had already demonstrated that he was the best player in the Negro Leagues.

False. Robinson, although generally regarded as an excellent player, was not seen as even the best player on his team, the Kansas City Monarchs. Rickey signed him because of a combination of qualities--not only his proven and potential talent and skill at the game, but also his personal integrity and his likely strength (as Rickey saw it) at withstanding the abuse that Rickey thought Robinson would face on and off the field for breaking the color barrier in major league baseball.

5. Professional baseball's night games, played under lights, first appeared in the Negro Leagues as a way to cope with the heavy scheduling demands of barnstorming play.

True. The Kansas City Monarchs' owner, J. L. Wilkinson, developed a portable light system consisting of light towers on truck beds in 1929-30. The light trucks traveled with his team and allowed them much more flexibility in scheduling their games. White major leagues did not have night games (with lights) until 1935 in Cincinnati.

1. These foods from the Americas, spread via Portuguese contact, were cultivated widely in West Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Select the item that does not belong:
a. Peanuts
b. Tomatoes
c. Apples
d. Peppers

2. Introduced to the Americas early in the transatlantic slave trade, these foods were particularly associated with the food preferences of African slaves.

Select the item that does not belong:
a. Okra
b. Watermelons
c. Pineapples
d. Bananas

3. These foods, common in Europe and Africa, were introduced to the Americas by the earliest generation of European colonists.

Select the item that does not belong:
a. Onions
b. Celery
c. Pork
d. Chicken

4. Grown in Europe but not Africa, these foods were introduced to the Americas by early Europeans colonists.

Select the item that does not belong:
a. Collards
b. Kale
c. Turnips
d. Potatoes

5. African slaves newly arrived in America adopted these American foods into their cooking.

Select the item that does not belong:
a. Sweet potatoes
b. Corn
c. Oats
d. Lima beans

1. Many idioms and words we use today arose from maritime jargon. Which of the following is not true?

b. "Blackstrap" was a sailor's nickname for tar.

"Blackstrap," today used for thick molasses, was a nickname not for tar, but for a cheap wine typically served in the Mediterranean. Sailors stationed in the area were said to be "black-strapped."

As for the other terms, cooks were permitted to keep a portion of the "slush," or fat scum from boiling meat, in the ship's stores. They then sold the fat to tallow merchants, providing the cooks with a handy "slush fund." Plates were generally square in the British Navy, for easier storage—leading to our adoption of the phrase, "a square meal." Finally, the word, "junk" originated as a word for rope worn to the point that it was useless for anything beyond making fenders or friction-reducing sail cushioning (baggywrinkle). Eventually, according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, it also was used to refer to the meat, often of poor quality, fed to sailors, and then to anything discarded or broken.

2. There are many whales in the sea, and each had its own peculiarities noted by whalers. Which of the following is not true?

a. American whalers sought out the blue whale, as its immense size provided the most blubber, and therefore, profit.

Blue whales were unmanageable with American whaling technology. (Groups with more advanced tools, such as the Scandinavians, did hunt them.)

Right whales were given their name based on their by-products and the comparative ease of the kill. Sperm whales were similarly prized; however, they often dove deeply when injured. Secured to the line of a harpoon, attendant whalers had to sever the line fast, or follow the whale to the bottom. John Smith was interested in whaling in early America. However, he failed to locate any whale species considered valuable at the time.

3. Among seafaring tales, few are as well known as Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Which of the following is not true?

c. The name of Ahab's vessel, the Pequod, is taken from a type of indigenous vessel used in Rokovoko, the island from which the character Queequeg came.

The Pequod is likely named after the Pequot, a Native American group native to what is now Connecticut. Rokovoko (or Kokovoko in some versions) is a fictional island created by Melville.

Moby Dick is thought to be based on a real white sperm whale, known as Mocha Dick. As for the chapel in New Bedford, the pulpit was added after the release of the 1956 film Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck. The pulpit was redesigned to meet the expectations of tourists, disappointed by the lack of the prominent film feature. Finally, the Coffin and Starbuck families intermarried in the 17th century, creating a long line of Quaker whalers. Both Coffin and Starbuck remained Nantucket surnames.

4. Different groups of people were considered bad luck on ships, and treated with suspicion when on board. Which of the following groups was not considered a risk?

b. One-eyed men

There was no stigma attached to sailors or passengers with one eye—although this was not true of the cross-eyed or "swivel-eyed."

Finns were believed to whistle the winds, have the second sight, or be in league with the Devil. In contrast, preachers, as men of God, could cause harm to vessels carrying them, as the sea was considered godless. Bringing a godly individual aboard was taunting the sea. Similar superstitions, although less common, applied to the Bible. Last, but not least, women were generally considered ill luck on board. However, a naked woman would bring favor to the voyage by shaming the sea into submission. This sparked the tradition of naked female figureheads. Women were also believed to be the best navigators.

5. One final question, a "grab bag" of whaling fact and fiction. Which of the following is not true?

a. A sea shanty is a type of dance, akin to a jig, in which the watch would take turns performing.

Sea shanties were, in fact, work songs, used to time tasks that required group coordination, such as furling sails. They featured call and response singing and were highly rhythmic.

Whaling expeditions chose to freeze their vessels into the ice knowing that they would be among the first whalers in prime hunting locations come the thaw. One of the better known captains involved in the practice, George Comer, also used the winter to conduct ethnographic studies of the local Inuit. Lewis Temple, an African American man, did invent the toggle head harpoon, which released a hook on the harpoon head when it entered the whale. This prevented the harpoon from easily sliding out of the wound, and revolutionized the whaling industry. Scrimshaw was a recognized whalers' art. Common forms included pie crimpers, walking sticks, and corset busks, frequently given to sweethearts as gifts.