In the 2011 documentary The Barber of Birmingham, civil rights activist James Armstrong recounts how his barbershop in Birmingham, Alabama,...

Sentence Structure

• In the 2011 documentary The Barber of Birmingham,
  • civil rights activist James Armstrong
    • recounts
      • how his barbershop in Birmingham, Alabama,
        • [?] as a political hub
          • for members of the Black community
          • during the 1950s.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's read through and understand what this sentence is saying:

• 'In the 2011 documentary The Barber of Birmingham'
  • This tells us the context – where this information is coming from
  • It's from a documentary made in 2011

• 'civil rights activist James Armstrong recounts'
  • James Armstrong is telling a story about something
  • He's recounting or narrating something from his experience

This is where we have the blank:

• 'how his barbershop in Birmingham, Alabama, ______ as a political hub'

Let's look at the choices – they give us different verb forms:

• serving, having served, served, to serve

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

• 'as a political hub for members of the Black community during the 1950s'
  • The barbershop functioned as a political hub
  • It was a gathering place for political discussions
  • This happened during the 1950s

So the complete picture is:

• Armstrong is recounting (telling the story of) how his barbershop functioned as a political hub back in the 1950s

What do we notice about the structure here?

• Armstrong "recounts" something – this is the main verb of the whole sentence
• What does he recount? He recounts "how his barbershop... [blank] as a political hub"
• The word "how" introduces a clause – a group of words with its own subject and verb
• In this clause, "his barbershop" is the subject, and we need the main verb to tell us what action the barbershop did

For this clause to be complete:

• We need a verb form that can stand on its own as the main action
• It needs to be a complete verb, not a verb form that requires extra helping words

Looking at our choices:

• "serving" and "having served" are -ing forms that need helping verbs like "was" or "had" to work as main verbs
• "to serve" is an infinitive – it expresses purpose or potential, not a completed action
• "served" is a complete past tense verb that can stand on its own

The correct answer is C. served.

This makes perfect sense: Armstrong recounts (now, in the documentary) how his barbershop served (back then, in the 1950s) as a political hub.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Complete Verbs vs. Verb Forms That Need Help

Every clause needs a complete verb (called a finite verb in grammar terms) that can stand as the main action. Some verb forms cannot do this job by themselves:

Complete verb forms that work as main verbs:

• Simple past: "served"
• Simple present: "serves"
• Past with helping verb: "was serving"

Verb forms that CANNOT work alone as main verbs:

• Participles: "serving," "having served" → need helping verbs
• Infinitives: "to serve" → express purpose or potential, not main actions

In this question:

• The clause "how his barbershop _____ as a political hub" needs a main verb
• Only "served" provides a complete verb form
• The other choices are incomplete verb forms that would leave the clause hanging

The pattern to remember:

When a clause has a clear subject performing an action, that action needs to be expressed with a complete verb form that shows when it happened (tense) and can stand independently.