ABSTRACT
In Go Tell It on the Mountain, his first novel, James Baldwin describes the repeated cry of a young black man named Gabriel. Today the wails of real-life black males can still be heard, as they struggle to survive in communities of turmoil. The general turmoil engendered by poverty and the domestic violence in the family could have had a negative effect on the literacy development. Turmoil, however, does not automatically lead to stunted literacy. Many black males who come from violent homes and troubled communities manage to achieve high levels of literacy. Responsive and meaningful literacy instruction can nurture the resiliency of black males and can encourage them to value the written word. With the No Child Left Behind mandate, schools across the United States are striving to close the reading achievement gap between high-achieving and low-achieving students. Yet black male students continue to lag behind.
