Featuring a progressive group of black professors and poets, this work captures an important moment in the history of language and literacy education and the continuing struggle for equal language rights. The editors revisit the problem of public school's failure to educate Black children.

H. Samy Alim, is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UCLA and John Baugh is the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences, Chair of African and African American Studies Program at Washington University.