Troubles, Triumphs, and Trivia: 13 Games about Black History

Following the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, some Black Americans worried that people knew little about African American trials and triumphs. These parents, educators, and entrepreneurs developed games to teach children and adults about Black history and culture. 

In 1970 Shindana Toys released designer Carl Porter’s Afro American History Mystery Game. Players spun a dial, answered Black history trivia questions, and completed jigsaw puzzles. Volume II of the game featured puzzles of Black women such as abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Soft drink maker 7UP offered We Dunit, a 1971 card game, as a mail-in premium to teach people about Black icons such as abolitionist Frederick Douglass and educator Mary McLeod Bethune. The game was like charades, with players acting out the achievements of famous Black figures. 

Inspired by Alex Haley’s 1976 novel Roots, teacher Gloria Hill created The Game of Roots (1978) for Black families to explore their ancestry while learning about human rights advocates. The Monopoly-style gameplay centered on earning money and a race to complete a family tree.

With a name reportedly translated from an African language to mean “instruct,” FUNDA set players on a path to scholastic excellence. This trivia game challenged players to acquire enough money, knowledge, and “college credits” to earn a Doctorate in Black studies to win.

Inspired by the success of Trivial Pursuit and frustrated by the game’s lack of Black content, Julian Blair enlisted the help of his brother and a friend to make a game. In 1984 they created Black Quest to capitalize on the trivia craze and educate Americans about Black history.

Designed as a classroom aid, African-American Discovery (1990) used card decks of Black history facts to educate players. To encourage everyone in classrooms to learn together, groups chose team captains to consult and strategize with team members before answering questions.

Drawing its content from a successful 1989 book series, Black Americans of Achievement: The Game (1993) highlighted Black accomplishments. Burger King even sponsored a tournament for kids to promote the game as a good first step toward success and distinction.

Olmec Toys released the Black history memory game Black by Design in 1995. The game asked players to match illustrations of the traffic signal, gas mask, and other products on which Black inventors worked, and it encouraged them to learn more by reading an accompanying guide.

In Black Card Revoked (2015), questions like “Which hot sauce is the only one worth using?” framed Black cultural history as insider knowledge. The game inverted player’s expectations of Black history prowess by focusing on shared history and knowledge, with hilarious results. 

The Blerd (a portmanteau of “Black,” and “nerd”) Domination (2018) card game approached Black history as another element of cultural knowledge. In this game, trivia questions about Black history stand beside queries on the likes of anime, television, movies, and music.