Famous People from Alabama Trivia Quiz

Answer: Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King was born in 1927 in Marion, Alabama. She met her future husband, Martin Luther King Jr., while studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. They married in 1953 and had four children. During the Civil Rights Movement, Coretta often fought alongside her husband.

After his assassination, she took on an even more prominent role in the fight for equality. Later in her life, Coretta Scott King also fought for women's equality, LGBT rights, and an end to apartheid in South Africa.

Answer: Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1934. He is nicknamed the Hammer or Hammerin' Hank. In 1974, Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record for career home runs when he hit his 715th. He expanded his record to 755, which held until 2007 when he was surpassed by Barry Bonds.

Aaron got his start playing for the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro League in 1952. In 1954, he joined the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves before finishing his career as a Milwaukee Brewer in 1976.

Answer: Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum was born in Cullman in 1980. He first rose to fame after appearing in the 2006 dance movie "Step Up" where he played Tyler Cage. Tatum met his future wife Jenna Dewan on the set of the film. The couple married and had one child, but divorced in 2019.

Tatum might be best known for playing Michael Lane, a stripper, in the film "Magic Mike" and its sequel. The film is loosely based on Channing Tatum's early life when he was an exotic dancer. He also played Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz in the Academy Award-nominated film "Foxcatcher".

Answer: Tuskegee Institute

Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856 in Virginia. During his adult life, Washington fought against Jim Crow laws and sought to improve educational facilities for African-Americans. He developed the somewhat controversial Atlanta Compromise which stated that Black Americans would not demand equality and would submit to Southern White rule in exchange for proper educational facilities.

Washington founded Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. He was President of the college from its founding in 1881 to his death in 1915. During his tenure, Booker expanded the Tuskegee Institute by establishing satellite campuses in rural Alabama. Although he was still the school's president in 1915, Washington often traveled throughout the U.S. and abroad in his fight for racial equality in education. In ill health, Washington traveled back to Tuskegee so he could complete his wish and die in his beloved town.

He also helped found the National Negro Business League. In contrast to the civil rights leaders who came after him, Booker T. Washington is generally considered a more passive leader and this often caused conflict between him and other leaders who were striving for quicker, more pronounced equality.

Answer: Go Set a Watchman

Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926. She was a close friend of Truman Capote who encouraged her to write her own novel. "To Kill a Mockingbird" was published in 1960 and focused on racial tension in the Deep South of the 1930s. The protagonist is Atticus Finch, a white lawyer who defends an innocent black man on the charges of rape.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was Lee's only published novel until 2015. "Go Set a Watchman" is believe to be a rough first draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird". At the time of its publication, it was not clear if "Go Set a Watchman" was a sequel, continuation or something else. Lee rarely made public appearances and was generally a private person. It is also not clear if she authorized its publication.

Answer: Montgomery

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was asked to move to the back of the bus so a white passenger could have her seat. She refused and was arrested. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the most important events in the Civil Rights Movement. The boycott lasted just over a year when bus segregation was ruled unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks was not the first person to be arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on a segregated bus. The first was a teenager named Claudette Colvin. However, Colvin's case was largely neglected because she was a pregnant, unmarried teen at the time and activists feared her reputation would hurt their cause. Despite this, Colvin considered Rosa Parks one of her life's mentors.

Answer: Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1964. She is best known for her role as Monica, the ornery chef, on the sitcom "Friends". She also starred as Gale Weathers, the reporter, in the "Scream" horror movie franchise. While filming "Scream", she met David Arquette and the two married in 1999.

They had one child together before divorcing in 2013. During her marriage, she was often referred to as Courteney Cox Arquette.

Answer: The Story of My Life

Helen Keller was born in Tuscambia, Alabama in 1880. She was born sighted and of hearing but lost those senses due to an illness she contracted when she was two years old. Keller worked with Alexander Graham Bell to improve her signing and communication skills. However, Annie Sullivan is the teacher who best helped her in this area.

Keller published her autobiography "The Story of My Life" in 1903 which detailed her experiences and struggles. She also published several poems when she was a young girl but her autobiography is her best known work. It was loosely adapted into the film "The Miracle Worker". In addition to writing, Keller was also a political activist who supported worker's rights, feminism, and socialism.

Answer: Hugo Black

Hugo Black was born in Harlan, Alabama in 1886. Prior to joining the U.S. Senate, Black was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He would later recant his membership in the hate group. While on the Supreme Court, Black was considered part of the liberal wing (for the time period) of the Court and upheld large parts of Roosevelt's New Deal.

He wrote the majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States which upheld the constitutionality of Japanese internment during World War II. He also wrote the majority opinion in Gideon v. Wainwright which declared that poor defendants are entitled to a lawyer in court. Black had a mixed record on civil rights issues.

He joined the majority in Brown v. Board of Education which struck down segregation in public schools, but he also ruled that a poll tax was constitutional.

Answer: 4

Jesse Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913. He was an African-Athlete who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Nazi Germany. His winning four gold medals at those games was seen as a huge blow to Adolf Hitler's Aryan supremacy theory. Owens later expressed disappointed about not being invited to the White House to meet FDR after the Games like white athletes were.

The four events Owens won gold medals in were the 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m relay and the long jump.