Quiz of the Day
I Have a Dream
Friday, 28 August 2026
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his defining speech at the March on Washington — explore the civil rights movement and its legacy
1. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Where exactly was he speaking?
- The steps of the Lincoln Memorial
- The Washington Monument
- The National Mall near the White House
- The steps of the Capitol Building
King delivered the speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — a symbolically powerful choice, as Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation exactly 100 years earlier. The march drew approximately 250,000 participants. The iconic 'I have a dream' refrain was actually improvised — King's prepared text didn't include it. Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson reportedly called out to him 'Tell them about the dream, Martin!' and he set aside his prepared remarks.
2. What was the full official name of the 1963 March on Washington?
- The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- The Freedom March to Washington
- The National Civil Rights March
- The March for Freedom and Equality
The full name — 'March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom' — is often forgotten in memory of the speech, but it was as much an economic justice event as a civil rights one. The march demanded not only an end to racial segregation but also a federal jobs program, a minimum wage increase, and fair employment practices. King's vision was explicitly economic as well as racial — a dimension often overlooked in popular memory.
3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made illegal what forms of discrimination?
- Discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations
- Discrimination in federal employment only
- Housing discrimination only
- Racial discrimination in voting only
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was landmark legislation prohibiting discrimination in employment (Title VII), public accommodations (hotels, restaurants, theaters), and federally funded programs. The addition of 'sex' to the discrimination categories was proposed by a segregationist congressman who thought it would sink the bill — it passed anyway, inadvertently laying the legal groundwork for women's rights protections.
4. What nonviolent protest tactic, pioneered in the civil rights movement, involved sitting at segregated lunch counters?
- Sit-ins
- Lie-ins
- March-ins
- Freedom Rides
The Greensboro sit-in began on February 1, 1960, when four Black college students sat at a Woolworth's lunch counter and were refused service. They remained seated despite harassment until closing time. The action inspired similar sit-ins across the South within weeks, involving tens of thousands of students. Within 18 months, lunch counters at Woolworth's and other chains had been desegregated — a stunning success of nonviolent direct action.
5. Who was Rosa Parks, and what happened on December 1, 1955?
- The first Black woman elected to Congress, who gave a famous speech
- An NAACP organizer who organized the first freedom ride
- A civil rights lawyer who challenged segregation laws in court
- A seamstress who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, sparking the bus boycott
Rosa Parks's arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man on December 1, 1955 triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott — a 381-day boycott of the city's bus system by Black residents. It ended with the Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Parks was not the first Black woman to resist bus segregation — Claudette Colvin had done so nine months earlier — but the NAACP chose to build the campaign around Parks as a more strategically effective plaintiff.
6. What was the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' written by Martin Luther King Jr. in response to?
- A government order to cease civil rights activities
- A newspaper editorial attacking the march on Selma
- A public letter from white clergymen criticizing civil rights demonstrations as 'unwise and untimely'
- A court injunction against protest marches
King wrote the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' on April 16, 1963, in response to 'A Call for Unity' — an open letter from eight white Alabama clergymen urging Black people to be patient and work through courts rather than demonstrate. King's response, written on scraps of paper smuggled in by his lawyer, is a masterpiece of moral argument. It directly challenged 'white moderates' who preferred order to justice — arguably his most intellectually powerful writing.
7. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed following which violent event in Selma, Alabama?
- The murder of Emmett Till
- The bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church
- The assassination attempt on MLK in Albany, Georgia
- Bloody Sunday — state troopers attacking marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
On March 7, 1965, Alabama state troopers attacked 600 peaceful voting rights marchers with clubs and tear gas on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Television footage of the attack — later called 'Bloody Sunday' — shocked the nation and accelerated passage of the Voting Rights Act. President Johnson addressed Congress 8 days later, invoking the civil rights anthem: 'And we shall overcome.'
8. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize in what year, at what age?
- 1964 at age 35
- 1966 at age 37
- 1960 at age 31
- 1968 at age 39
Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at age 35 — at the time the youngest person ever to receive the prize (a record later broken by Malala Yousafzai). He donated the $54,123 prize money in its entirety to the civil rights movement. In his acceptance speech in Oslo, he said: 'I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.'
9. What was COINTELPRO, and how did it relate to civil rights leaders?
- A Congressional committee overseeing civil rights legislation
- A code name for the CIA's foreign policy operations
- A legal defense fund for civil rights activists
- An FBI program of covert surveillance and disruption targeting civil rights and other social movements
COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) was a covert FBI program from 1956 to 1971 that surveilled, infiltrated, and disrupted civil rights organizations. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called King 'the most dangerous Negro in America.' The FBI attempted to psychologically destabilize King by sending him anonymous letters suggesting he commit suicide, and tried to prevent him receiving the Nobel Prize. These programs were exposed by the Senate's Church Committee in 1975.
10. Who were the 'Little Rock Nine'?
- Nine Black students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957
- Nine congressmen who voted for the Civil Rights Act
- Nine civil rights lawyers who argued key cases before the Supreme Court
- Nine NAACP leaders who organized the 1963 march
In September 1957, nine Black students attempted to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas following the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered the National Guard to block them. President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,200 US Army paratroopers to escort the students to class — the most significant federal deployment against racial injustice since Reconstruction.
11. What organization did Martin Luther King Jr. co-found, which became the primary organizational backbone of the civil rights movement?
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- NAACP
- Urban League
- Congress of Racial Equality
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957 with MLK as its first president. It was based in Black churches, using their infrastructure, community trust, and moral authority for civil rights organizing. The SCLC organized the Birmingham Campaign of 1963, which drew national and international attention to segregation's violence, directly leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The church-based model gave the movement remarkable organizational resilience.
12. The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling (1954) overturned what previous precedent?
- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
- Dred Scott v. Sandford
- Marbury v. Madison
- McCulloch v. Maryland
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) had established the 'separate but equal' doctrine — that racial segregation was constitutional as long as facilities were nominally equal. Brown v. Board of Education unanimously overturned this, ruling that separate educational facilities were 'inherently unequal.' Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the unanimous opinion. The decision had been preceded by decades of NAACP legal strategy, with Thurgood Marshall (later the first Black Supreme Court Justice) arguing the case.
13. What was the 'Freedom Summer' of 1964?
- A voter registration campaign in Mississippi that drew northern student volunteers and faced violent resistance
- The summer season during which civil rights marches peaked
- A summer arts festival celebrating Black culture
- The summer Congress passed the Civil Rights Act
Freedom Summer brought approximately 1,000 mostly white Northern college student volunteers to Mississippi to help register Black voters who faced systematic disenfranchisement. Three civil rights workers — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner — were murdered by Klan members with local police complicity. Their disappearance attracted national attention and helped build support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
14. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in which city?
- Washington DC
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Birmingham, Alabama
King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had come to support a sanitation workers' strike. He was 39 years old. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder in 1969. However, a 1999 civil trial — brought by King's family — found a Memphis café owner and 'others including government agencies' responsible for a conspiracy. Many questions about the assassination remain contested by scholars and King's family.
15. What is the name of the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., and when is it observed?
- MLK Day, January 15 (his birthday)
- Civil Rights Day, August 28
- MLK Day, the third Monday in January
- Freedom Day, February 1
Congress established the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday in 1983, signed by President Reagan — who had initially opposed it. It was first observed in 1986. The holiday falls on the third Monday in January, near King's actual birthday of January 15. New Hampshire was the last state to officially adopt the holiday in 1999, with some states previously calling it by different names to avoid controversy.