Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Seeking the American Promise: “The Quest for Home Ownership in Segregated Detroit”

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question

1. Why did thousands of people, many of whom were African Americans from the South, move to Detroit in the 1920s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. Thousands of Americans flooded into Detroit during the 1920s because the Ford automobile factory offered its workers dependable, well-paying jobs. African Americans were particularly attracted by the promise of work that paid well, compared to the dearth of employment—outside of sharecropping—available to them in the South.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Thousands of Americans flooded into Detroit during the 1920s because the Ford automobile factory offered its workers dependable, well-paying jobs. African Americans were particularly attracted by the promise of work that paid well, compared to the dearth of employment—outside of sharecropping—available to them in the South.

Question

2. Which of the following methods did white homeowners use to try to prevent black families from moving into their neighborhoods in the 1920s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. To get around the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1917, which forbade local governments from requiring segregated housing, white homeowners used a variety of different extralegal methods to prevent African American families from moving into their neighborhoods. These methods included homeowners adding restrictive covenants to property deeds (which forbid any present or future owner from selling the home to a black family), real estate agents refusing to show houses in white neighborhoods to black families, and banks refusing to give black families mortgages for homes in white neighborhoods. If all these methods failed, white homeowners targeted black families with violence in an attempt to force them out of the neighborhood.
Incorrect. The answer is b. To get around the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1917, which forbade local governments from requiring segregated housing, white homeowners used a variety of different extralegal methods to prevent African American families from moving into their neighborhoods. These methods included homeowners adding restrictive covenants to property deeds (which forbid any present or future owner from selling the home to a black family), real estate agents refusing to show houses in white neighborhoods to black families, and banks refusing to give black families mortgages for homes in white neighborhoods. If all these methods failed, white homeowners targeted black families with violence in an attempt to force them out of the neighborhood.

Question

3. Why did Dr. Ossian Sweet want to move his family into an all-white working-class Detroit neighborhood in 1925?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. Dr. Sweet’s Detroit medical practice flourished in the early 1920s, and he saved up enough money to buy a home for his wife and daughter. However, Sweet did not want to settle his family in the black neighborhood, Black Bottom, because it was congested, dirty, and rat-infested. As Sweet’s brother said, “He just wanted to bring up his little girl in good surroundings.”
Incorrect. The answer is c. Dr. Sweet’s Detroit medical practice flourished in the early 1920s, and he saved up enough money to buy a home for his wife and daughter. However, Sweet did not want to settle his family in the black neighborhood, Black Bottom, because it was congested, dirty, and rat-infested. As Sweet’s brother said, “He just wanted to bring up his little girl in good surroundings.”

Question

4. When Dr. Ossian Sweet and his family arrived at their new home in a white Detroit neighborhood in 1925, members of the local community tried to prevent the Sweets from moving in by

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. As soon as they moved into their new home, the Sweets were targeted by violence, in which a mob of hundreds of white men threw rocks, broke windows, and yelled that they would send the Sweets back where they belonged. This experience illustrated how, when white homeowners were unable to use extralegal means to prevent black families from moving into their neighborhoods (such as signing restrictive covenants), they often turned to acts of violence.
Incorrect. The answer is a. As soon as they moved into their new home, the Sweets were targeted by violence, in which a mob of hundreds of white men threw rocks, broke windows, and yelled that they would send the Sweets back where they belonged. This experience illustrated how, when white homeowners were unable to use extralegal means to prevent black families from moving into their neighborhoods (such as signing restrictive covenants), they often turned to acts of violence.

Question

5. On what grounds did lawyer Clarence Darrow argue that Dr. Sweet and his friends should be acquitted of the murder charge they had received after a white man was shot and killed in the mob outside the Sweets’ home in 1925?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. Darrow told the jury that the Sweets and their friends had simply been defending themselves from violence. He argued that “every man has a right to kill to defend himself or his family, or others, either in defense of the home, or in defense of themselves.” Implicit in Darrow’s argument was the fact that it was unjust to arrest eleven black men for a death committed in self-defense, while no white men were arrested for the mob violence they committed against the Sweets and their friends.
Incorrect. The answer is c. Darrow told the jury that the Sweets and their friends had simply been defending themselves from violence. He argued that “every man has a right to kill to defend himself or his family, or others, either in defense of the home, or in defense of themselves.” Implicit in Darrow’s argument was the fact that it was unjust to arrest eleven black men for a death committed in self-defense, while no white men were arrested for the mob violence they committed against the Sweets and their friends.