Test your knowledge with this Black History Month quiz!

1. Who told the Senate Armed Services Community that he would urge black youths to resist the draft unless discrimination was banned?
2. What was the only Southern state to permit slave enlistments in the military in 1780?
3. What was the first Black-owned company to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange?
4. What was the first all-Black religious denomination in the United States?
5. Which European nation was the first to stop trading African slaves to the United States in 1794?
6. Who was the only other black actress to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Oscar since Hattie McDaniel in 1939?
7. Who sang Martin Luther King, Jr.'s favorite gospel song, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," after his funeral procession in 1968?
8. By the eighteenth century, what colony was the leader in the slave trade?
9. During the nineteenth century, how many states had lows prohibiting interracial marriage?
10. Which state east of the Mississippi was the first to give African American women the right to vote, 1913?
11. What was the nickname for the all-Black 332d Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps, which escorted Allied bombers through European airspace on 1,578 missions during World War II?
12. The hymn, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," by James Weldon Johnson, was meant to celebrate whose birthday?
13. A pitcher in the Negro Baseball League for 25 years, developer of the bat-badger, jumpball, and drooper, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 - name him.
14. Having worked as an elevator operator for four dollars weekly, he achieved fame upon publication of Lyrics of Lowly Life in 1896.
15. Who holds the record of 100 points scored in a single NBA game?
16. Despite a 1792 discriminatory law against Blacks in the new U.S. military, which of the country's armed forces began to enlist free blacks in the 1790's?
17. What tennis champion and golfer earned her place in the Black Hall of Fame in 1974?
18. Who founded the first major African American nation union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters?
19. Who founded the National Negro Business League?
20. At age 76, this former slave and eminent scientist narrated a 1940 documentary dramatizing his struggles and successes to a young boy pondering the options for the future.
    

One of our newest research databases is the U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978, which features a fully searchable database of 350,000 separate documents representing approximately 150,000 Supreme Court cases. The search capabilities allow researchers to focus on full text, specific keywords or phrases, author (counsel or organization), case name, court term year and document filing date, or U.S. Reports citation number.

Why does this database stop at 1978 you might ask? Both Lexis and Westlaw provide access to the U.S. Supreme Court briefs after 1978. Lexis coverage begins January 1979 for all cases granted certiorari and the briefs are posted within 6 weeks of publication (Filename: BRIEFS). Westlaw coverage of merits briefs begins with the 1990-91 Term; coverage of amicus briefs begins with the 1995-96 Term (Database: SCT-BRIEF). Both services include some state supreme court briefs as well.

Briefs and records are probably one of the most under appreciated and under utilized of research resources. "Briefs and records can potentially provide attorneys who have a similar case with much of their research and a list of arguments that have or have not impressed an appellate court." J. Myron Jacobstein, et. al, Fundamentals of Legal Research 456 (1994). Briefs and records can fill in missing facts and essential background for researchers analyzing a court opinion. They may also suggest arguments you had not considered.

The database is very easy to search. You can browse alphabetical lists for known case names or authors. Use phrase searching by putting W1 between the search words. For example, "constitutional W1 limitations " means find constitutional "within 1 word of" limitations. It also tells the system that constitutional must proceed limitations. The Advanced Search lets you string together several phrases or combine keywords with authors. Try U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs for your next research project.

1. A. Philip Randolph
2. Maryland
3. BET Holdings
4. The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)
5. France
6. Whoopie Goldberg
7. Mahalia Jackson
8. Rhode Island
9. Thirty-eight
10. Illinois
11. The Tuskegee Airmen
12. Abraham Lincoln
13. Satchel Paige
14. Paul Lawrence Dunbar
15. Wilt Chamberlin
16. U.S. Navy
17. Althea Gibson
18. A. Philip Randolph
19. Booker T. Washington
20. George Washington Carver (also the figure in the photo above!)