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King Martin Luther Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
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Martin Luther King Trivia

Martin Luther King Trivia Quizzes

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8 quizzes and 80 trivia questions.
1.
  The Assassination of Martin Luther King   best quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Ten questions about the events leading up to and surrounding one of the noteworthy happenings in a tragic and tumultuous year.
Tough, 10 Qns, d2407, Jan 17 22
Tough
d2407
Jan 17 22
2108 plays
2.
  Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The assassination of Martin Luther King was one of the lowest points in American history, in the year that truly changed America--1968. How much do you know about the events surrounding his death?
Average, 10 Qns, goodreporter, Oct 12 10
Average
goodreporter gold member
607 plays
3.
  Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 2   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The assassination of Martin Luther King was one of the darkest points in American history. This quiz, which is the 2nd part of a look back to that horrifying time, is to see how much you know about an event that changed American history.
Tough, 10 Qns, goodreporter, Oct 12 10
Tough
goodreporter gold member
390 plays
4.
  I Have A Dream, Martin Luther King    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This entire quiz is about the famous 'I Have A Dream' speech, given by the late civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tough, 10 Qns, MommyPanda, Jan 19 08
Tough
MommyPanda
2201 plays
5.
  Martin Luther King and His Family   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Martin Luther King was considered a very public man. But he was also a family man. Find out more.
Tough, 10 Qns, goodreporter, Jun 15 14
Tough
goodreporter gold member
395 plays
6.
  Martin Luther King, Jr. - King For A Day    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, here are ten questions about him, his career and his death.
Average, 10 Qns, pennie1478, Mar 06 16
Average
pennie1478 gold member
1477 plays
7.
  Coretta Scott: She Married A King   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Not much is known on this site of the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. so I have written a quiz detailing her life through her death.
Average, 10 Qns, pennie1478, Jan 16 10
Average
pennie1478 gold member
327 plays
8.
  The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 3    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The assassination of Martin Luther King has continued to be one of the darkest crimes in American history. The first two parts of this quiz concentrated on Dr. King. This part concentrates more on the assassin.
Tough, 10 Qns, goodreporter, Oct 22 10
Tough
goodreporter gold member
363 plays
trivia question Quick Question
When Coretta died, she was at a rehabilitation center in what country?

From Quiz "Coretta Scott: She Married A King"





Martin Luther King Trivia Questions
1. James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Rev. Martin Luther King, used an alias when checking into the rooming house from where he fired the fatal shot. What alias did Ray use?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 3

Answer: Eric Starvo Galt

Why Ray chose the alias of Eric Starvo Galt is unknown. He never denied having used the name. Yet, at the same time, he denied that he had killed Dr. King.

2. In which city was Martin Luther King assassinated?

From Quiz Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1

Answer: Memphis, Tennessee

King had been in Memphis for a protest the week before. But, he and his close aides had to flee when the protest turned violent---in direct contradiction to his message of non-violence. Had that protest worked, he would never have been in Memphis on the day he was assassinated.

3. Coretta was the middle child of three children. What did she and her siblings do to help raise money for the family during the Great Depression?

From Quiz Coretta Scott: She Married A King

Answer: Picked cotton

Coretta's family was the first black family to own a truck in their town. Her mother, Bernice, drove a school bus full of black children to the Crossroads school so the children wouldn't have to walk three miles each day to and from school. She and her siblings made four to seven dollars a season picking cotton.

4. What event happened four days before King's assassination?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King

Answer: US President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election that year

On Sunday, March 31, US President Lyndon Johnson gave a nationally-televised address in which he surprised people by announcing a reduction in the bombing of Vietnam. He then went on to declare that he would not seek or accept re-election as president that year, an even more unexpected piece of news.

5. When was Martin Luther King, Jr. born?

From Quiz Martin Luther King, Jr. - King For A Day

Answer: January 15, 1929

Michael Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia. His father, Michael Luther King, Sr., was minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church and his mother, Alberta Williams King, was a schoolteacher. Michael changed his name to Martin when he was older. Martin had a younger brother named Alfred and a sister named Christine.

6. What year did Dr. King give this speech?

From Quiz I Have A Dream, Martin Luther King

Answer: 1963

He delivered the speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

7. Coretta Scott King was at home in Atlanta with her children when the first television bulletins had come that her husband had been shot. Where was she when she learned he had died?

From Quiz Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 2

Answer: Entering the airport in Atlanta to take a flight to Memphis to be with her husband.

Coretta Scott King was accompanied to the Atlanta airport by Mayor Ivan Allen and his wife, Louise. Allen was white and a good friend of the Kings. He felt that not only did he have the duty to be there for Mrs. King, he thought it was incredibly important for the Blacks in Atlanta to see the government was standing with the King family. It worked. Atlanta was one of the few major cities in the U.S. that did not have riots as a result of Dr. King's assassination While Coretta Scott King and the Allens raced to the airport, Eastern Airlines held a flight for her which was scheduled to fly to Memphis. Upon her arrival, she was met by her husband's executive secretary, who pulled her into a ladies' room and told her King had died. Mayor Allen was given the information at the same time. He felt that she needed to be informed of her husband's death by a government official and he also told her. She decided that her children needed her more than anyone else at that moment. So she, accompanied by the Allens, returned to her home.

8. For what reason had Martin Luther King gone to the city in which he was killed?

From Quiz Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1

Answer: To support a strike by garbage workers

The garbage workers had gone on strike because of the horrific deaths of two of them a couple of weeks before King came to town. The two had gotten into the back of a garbage truck to keep warm during the night, because there was no place the city provided them to go. They were accidentally crushed to death when the truck's compactor was turned on.

9. Where was Coretta born?

From Quiz Coretta Scott: She Married A King

Answer: Alabama

Coretta Scott was born on April 27, 1927 at a farmhouse near Heiberger, Alabama. She had an older sister named Edythe and a younger brother named Obadiah, named after their father.

10. In what US city was King assassinated?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King

Answer: Memphis, TN

King was in Memphis to rally the city's mostly-black sanitation workers, who were striking for higher wages and better benefits.

11. What nickname did he go by?

From Quiz Martin Luther King, Jr. - King For A Day

Answer: M.L.

Martin Luther King, Jr. went by the nickname M.L. as a child. As a child, M.L. and other African Americans had to use a separate restroom and drinking fountain than white people.

12. 'Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the _______________?'

From Quiz I Have A Dream, Martin Luther King

Answer: Emancipation Proclamation

'This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who have been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.'

13. The Kings had four children. Which of them followed in their father's footsteps and became a minister?

From Quiz Martin Luther King and His Family

Answer: Bernice

Bernice, the youngest of the King children, was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1990 (receiving a law degree the same day). Her first sermon was delivered at the church that is synonymous with the King name: Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. She served as an assistant minister there for three years before moving on to another church in Atlanta. She returned, however, to preach the sermon at the funeral of her mother, Coretta Scott King.

14. Who assassinated Dr. King?

From Quiz Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1

Answer: James Earl Ray

Up until his assassination of Dr. King, Ray had always been involved in petty, fairly non-violent crimes.

15. What was the name of the motel in which King was staying when he was killed?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King

Answer: Lorraine Motel

King had visited Memphis two times the month before he was killed, staying at a Holiday Inn. He received unfavorable press coverage for doing so, because of the availability of black-owned motels in the city. When he arrived in Memphis on April 3, he booked Room 306 of the black-owned Lorraine Motel.

16. The first church where Martin Luther King was a minister was in Montgomery, Alabama. Which of his children is named after that church?

From Quiz Martin Luther King and His Family

Answer: Dexter

The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery became a hotbed of what the segregationist white leadership of the city considered to be outsiders trying to ruin their way of life. It was from here that the then 26-year-old Dr. King, along with his closest friend, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted a year, until the white establishment capitulated. King sometimes said he wished that he could have just been a minister helping people at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, but that God had another plan for him.

17. As soon as Ray was identified as Dr. King's killer--under his alias--there was an international manhunt for his capture. Approximately how long after he was identified did it take police to arrest Ray?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 3

Answer: Two months

The international search for Ray included looking for him not only under his real name, but under his aliases as well. He was identified, under the alias Eric Starvo Galt, immediately after the assassination. He had used that name to rent a room in the boarding house from where he fired the shot that killed Dr. King. Police identified him under his own name around one week later.

18. What is the name of the motel where Dr. King was shot while standing on the second floor balcony?

From Quiz Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1

Answer: Lorraine Motel

The Lorraine Motel was freguently the hotel of choice for civil rights leaders and other prominent blacks visiting Memphis. This may be due to the fact that even though discrimination in hotel accomodations was against American constitutional law, it was still very much a fact in much of the south. In fact, Dr. King had stayed there a week before when he led a demonstration supporting the garbage workers that, to his deep chagrin, had turned violent. The motel has now become a civil rights museum.

19. At Antioch College, Coretta was the first African American woman to major in what?

From Quiz Coretta Scott: She Married A King

Answer: Elementary Education

After the school she picked to begin her student teaching wouldn't take her, Coretta was given the choice of an all-black school or a school privately funded by Antioch college. Coretta chose the privately funded school to begin her student teaching.

20. What did King do the night before he died?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King

Answer: Gave a famous speech

King addressed a group at the Mason Temple in Memphis, giving a long speech in which he talked about the days ahead, and reflected on his life and the times it had been threatened. The speech concluded with the words: "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." The speech was memorable not just for being his last one, but also because of the eerie way in which it seemed to foretell his own death.

21. At the age of 15, in what state did Martin go to college?

From Quiz Martin Luther King, Jr. - King For A Day

Answer: Georgia

In 1948 entered Morehouse College. When he was 19, M.L. moved to the Crozer Theological seminary in Pennsylvania where he became a minister like his father and grandfather. He then went to Boston University for his graduate studies.

22. Ray was finally arrested at Heathrow Airport in London. Why was he at Heathrow?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 3

Answer: He was trying to catch a flight to Belgium.

Ray was apparently desperate to get out of the United Kingdom. Running low on cash, he went back to his previous profession of trying to rob banks and small business establishments, with little success. But, his forays back into the petty criminal world were being noticed in London. He was apparently afraid that he would be arrested for the robberies, not for killing Dr. King.

23. Where was Dr. King getting ready to go when he was shot?

From Quiz Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1

Answer: To dinner at the home of a close friend and supporter

Dr. King was leaning over the balcony railing, talking to an aide about the meal the aide's wife was preparing and had just straightened up when he was hit.

24. Who was eventually arrested for killing King?

From Quiz The Assassination of Martin Luther King

Answer: James Earl Ray

James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped convict who had spent more than half of his life in correctional facilities, was eventually identified as King's killer. Ray succeeded in fleeing to Canada, then England, but was arrested in London on June 8, 1968. Ray often tried to implicate "Raoul" in the assassination, saying that a mysterious figure by that name had been directing his movements in 1968 and was the person actually behind the assassination. No one matching Ray's description of "Raoul" has ever been identified or arrested by law enforcement authorities.

25. Martin Luther King was not the only member of his immediate family to be assassinated. On June 30, 1974, another member of his family was shot dead inside Ebenezer Baptist Church during a service. Which member of King's family was murdered?

From Quiz Martin Luther King and His Family

Answer: Alberta King, his mother

Alberta King, who was 70 years old, was sitting at the church organ when a 23-year-old man from Ohio took aim at her and fired, killing her instantly. His reason for killing her, according to numerous contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts: he thought all Christians were his enemies.

26. Where was the single gunshot that hit Dr. King fired from?

From Quiz Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1

Answer: Through the window of a rear bathroom in a boarding house that faced the motel balcony.

James Earl Ray was actually standing in the claw-foot bathtub in the bathroom when he sighted King and pulled the trigger for the sole shot he fired. There was no hill or grocery store. But, what the Memphis fire department had done on April 4, 1968 helped give rise to the conspiracy theories that implicated the U.S. government in King's death. The only two black firefighters in that station were transfered to a different station on the morning of April 4. Many people took this as a sign the government wanted no black witnesses to any part of a plot that the government was aware of.

27. Where did Coretta meet Martin Luther King, Jr?

From Quiz Coretta Scott: She Married A King

Answer: Boston University

A woman named Mary Powell suggested that Coretta go out with Martin. He was studying for his PHD in Theology and Philosophy. On their first date, Coretta learned that Martin wanted a woman like her to become his wife.

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