Marshall Law or Martial Law? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was an Indian lawyer who spent twenty-one years in South Africa. When he arrived there he faced discrimination and protested his treatment trying to ride the train. He was not allowed to sit with European passengers and was beaten and kicked off.

He contemplated returning to India or protest for his rights and decided to protest for his rights. In 1915 he returned to India and organized peasants, farmers and labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive taxes. He led people in revolting against the British imposed tax salt and in rallying for Britain to leave India.

He was imprisoned for years in both India and South Africa for his actions. He was a champion for the poor, for women's rights and for animals. To the dismay of some, he was a steadfast proponent of non-violent resistance and the first to make a large impact through non-violent means. Britain granted independence in 1947 and two dominions were created - India and Pakistan.

Answer: No

In 1989 Chinese students participated in a number of protests that started as a reaction to the death of Hu Yaobang, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China who had been forced to resign. The protests started in April and included hunger strikes and protests in cities throughout China. Through June, the government responded in various ways, declaring martial law and sending the military to clear Tiananmen Square, where the largest demonstrations were taking place. On June third and fourth, there was a violent crackdown on the students resulting in injury and death. People who tried to flee in fear and panic were shot in the back. On June fifth, a lone man is photographed standing in front of a column of tanks, stepping in front of the tank no matter which way it turns. Neither his identity nor his fate are known.

There is video footage of him being pulled into the crowd by two people wearing blue. After that, no-one knows what happened to him and there are conflicting stories. Some stories state that he was executed while another that he escaped to Taiwan and took up work as an archaeologist.

Answer: Pussy Riot

This all female, punk rock performance art group are based in Moscow and have had a number of different members. They are known for their 'guerilla' performances and for their protests against Putin. They perform at public sites, video the performance and post online.

They gained notoriety when they performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow . Three group members were arrested for this performance in March 2012, denied bail and held until their trials started in late July. All three were sentenced to two years imprisonment. One of the members had her sentence suspended however the other two sentences were upheld.

The plight of the band members garnered international attention.

Answer: Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau was a leading transcendentalist, believing in the goodness of people and the corruptness of institutions that rule over people. He wrote an essay called "Resistance to Civil Government" ("Civil Disobedience" for short) and lived on the shores of Walden Pond for two years, to experiment in living simply.

He refused to pay his taxes and was jailed. He was freed after one night because someone (likely his aunt) paid his taxes, which he was not happy about. In his essay, he argues that people should not allow governments to turn them into agents of injustice and should not acquiesce to corrupt demands.

The essay was written in part as a reaction to his disgust with slavery and the American-Mexican War.

Answer: Thurgood Marshall

It wouldn't seem right to have a quiz with "Marshall Law" in the title and not mention Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was a lawyer who argued that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court case of Brown v Board of Education was a landmark case that he argued. Marshall represented the Brown family of Topeka, Kansas who were fighting for their daughter to attend a much closer all white school rather than take a bus to a school for black students which was farther away.

The 1954 unanimous decision read that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal".

In 1961 President Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 1965 he was named United States Solicitor General and in 1967 he was appointed to the Supreme Court.

Answer: Irving and Dorothy Stowe

Irving Strasmich married Dorothy Rabinowitz in 1953 and the two changed their surname to Stowe in honour of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the abolitionist. In 1968, they were part of a group that formed the "Don't Make a Wave Committee" to protest American nuclear bomb testing in Alaska.

In 1971 the name of the committee was changed to Greenpeace and the organization as we know it now was born. To bring attention to environmental issues, Greenpeace activists have scaled skycrapers, taken on whaling ships, organized protests around the globe and occupied structures where environmentally unsafe actions are taking place.

They are one of the most well known environmental organizations in the world.

Answer: Justin Trudeau

In January 2020, five Indigenous groups in Canada staged a series of protests to try to stop the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline through First Nation territory in British Columbia, Canada. The main concern was that the land is unceded so the Federal and Provincial governments had no right to allow the construction to take place on the land.

Another major concern was the potential negative environmental impact of the project. Chiefs ordered the pipeline personnel and police to leave the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory and they organized a series of blockades to stop the construction. Protests in solidarity took place in other major cities in Canada, including Toronto, Halifax, Winnipeg, Calgary and Regina. Prime Minister Trudeau stated that the Federal government should not tell police how to deal with protestors and initiated dialogue with the chiefs through the Ministers for Indigenous Relations.

Answer: Frieda Zames

Frieda Zames was a disability rights activist and mathematics professor who was disabled due to childhood polio and institutionalized for years. She joined the disability rights group Disabled in Action in the 1970s and used various forms of activism to make positive changes for individuals with disabilities.

She joined a group of other activists who surrounded a bus to protest a lack of wheelchair access. This action led to the inclusion of wheelchair lifts on all transit buses in New York City.

She also joined a lawsuit to make the Empire State Building wheelchair accessible. Other acts of civil disobedience targeted curbs, restrooms, public buildings and other modes of public transportation. She wrote the book "The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation" with her sister.

Answer: Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells was an early leader in the civil rights movement in the USA and a fighter for the right for women to vote. As a black woman, she also experienced discrimination from fellow suffragettes. A suffragist march was planned the day before Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated and Wells was expected to march at the back of the parade in a "colored delegation".

She stepped to the front of the parade and linked arms with her white Suffragette counterparts, staying with them for the duration of the parade.

She wrote for a newspaper called "Free Speech" and investigated and wrote about the horrors of lynching. For her work, she was threatened, run out of Memphis and labelled a "race agitator" by the U.S. government. Nevertheless she continued her work and later wrote for the "Chicago Defendor." After her death, a book about her life entitled "Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells" was published by her daughter.

Answer: Mitch Snyder

Mitch Snyder was an American advocate for the homeless who was a member of the Community for Creative Non Violence (CCNV) in Washington D.C. The CCNV pushed the government as well as places of worship to open up at night for homeless people. They held public funerals for people who had frozen to death and conducted hunger strikes to bring attention to the issue of homelessness. Snyder and other activists entered a federal building that was unoccupied and housed hundreds of homeless people overnight. Applying intense pressure on the government, they were able to lease the property for one dollar per year from the Federal government. Snyder fasted twice to try to get the government to renovate the property.

He attended a church in Georgetown every Sunday and stood in defiance when it was customary to kneel or sit, arguing that money collected should be given to the poor.

He hired a sculptor to make a nativity scene portraying poor people huddled around a steam grate with a sign that read "There is Still No Room at the Inn." This was put on display as part of the Christmastime Pageant of Peace in Washington.

His work with the CCNV brought national and international attention to the issue of homelessness.