At the time of this picture, I was a doctoral student at DePaul University and working on my dissertation. My research was centered around poor literacy scores of fourth grade African American boys consequently, our chance encounter hit home for me. Our meeting reinforced the current data that illustrates that African American boys’ literacy rate is at a dismal 14% and that these youth scored the lowest in literacy of any demographics who took standardized tests. My research noted countless impediments to these youths’ success in literacy. These impediments included suspensions, expulsions, being routed to special education classes, poverty, socioeconomic status, the environment inside and outside of their homes, and the consistent implications and projections of race and gender for African American boys. Unfortunately, many of these youths are ‘paying with their lives.’ As Carter G. Woodson suggested, “to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless,” Woodson, 1933, p. 2-3) can catapult him into the abyss of illiteracy, suspensions, expulsions, and incarceration.