Elaine Richardson is Assistant Professor of English and Applied Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University.

'A personal, public and political exploration of literacy education from the points of view of students from the African-American Vernacular English culture. The book offers teachers new ways of thinking about and incorporating linguistic diversity into their theories and pedagogical methods of addressing students from AAVE cultures.' - Wasafiri'This book should be mandatory reading for literacy teachers and researchers.' - Rebecca Rogers, Washington University, St Louis'Elaine Richardson's African American Literacies provides a much-needed contribution to current discussions on the literacy education of African American students.' - Journal of Literary Research

• Introduction: don't we still have to prove our humanity? 1. Literacy, language, composition, rhetoric and (not) the African American student: sick and tired of being sick and tired 2. the literacies of African American-centered rhetoric and composition: freestylin' or lookin' for a style that's free 3. "To protect and serve": African American female literacies 4. African American-centered rhetoric, composition, and literacy: theory and research 5. Composition in a fifth key: rhetorics and discourses in an African American-centered writing classroom 6. Dukin' it out with "the powers that be": centering African American-centered studies and students in the traditional curriculum

Elaine Richardson is Assistant Professor of English and Applied Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University.

'A personal, public and political exploration of literacy education from the points of view of students from the African-American Vernacular English culture. The book offers teachers new ways of thinking about and incorporating linguistic diversity into their theories and pedagogical methods of addressing students from AAVE cultures.' - Wasafiri'This book should be mandatory reading for literacy teachers and researchers.' - Rebecca Rogers, Washington University, St Louis'Elaine Richardson's African American Literacies provides a much-needed contribution to current discussions on the literacy education of African American students.' - Journal of Literary Research

• Introduction: don't we still have to prove our humanity? 1. Literacy, language, composition, rhetoric and (not) the African American student: sick and tired of being sick and tired 2. the literacies of African American-centered rhetoric and composition: freestylin' or lookin' for a style that's free 3. "To protect and serve": African American female literacies 4. African American-centered rhetoric, composition, and literacy: theory and research 5. Composition in a fifth key: rhetorics and discourses in an African American-centered writing classroom 6. Dukin' it out with "the powers that be": centering African American-centered studies and students in the traditional curriculum