Drawing on the authors’ experiences as Black parents, researchers, teachers, and teacher educators, this timely book presents a multipronged approach to affirming Black lives and literacies. The authors believe change is needed―not within Black children, but in the way they are perceived and educated, particularly in reading, writing, and critical thinking across grade levels. To inform literacy teachers and school leaders, the authors provide a conceptual framework for reimagining literacy instruction based on Black philosophical and theoretical foundations, historical background, literacy research, and authentic experiences of Black students. This important book includes counternarratives about the lives of Black learners; research conducted by Black scholars among Black students; examples of approaches to literacy with Black children that are making a difference; conversations among literacy researchers that move beyond academia; and a model for engaging all students in literacy. Affirming Black Students’ Lives and Literacies advocates for adopting a standard of care that will improve and support literacy achievement among today’s Black students by rejecting deficit presumptions and embracing the fullness of these students’ strengths. Book Features: A counternarrative of Black literacy history, lives, and learners.   - Narrative examples of Black literacy scholarship, by Black scholars who embrace their faith-walk as an integral part of their holistic approach to literacy teaching and learning. - Discussion questions to spur conversations among school administrators, parents/caregivers, politicians, reading researchers, teacher educators, and classroom teachers.  - An array of extant Black scholarship that should inform literacy praxis and research.  - A conceptual framework, CARE, that is applicable for all learners with a focus on Black literacy learners. “ Affirming Black Students’ Lives & Literacies: Bearing Witness challenges readers to think about teaching Black students with intentionality, purpose, and first and foremost, love.” ― Teachers College Record “Exceptionally well organized and presented, Affirming Black Students' Lives and Literacies: Bearing Witness is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to school district, college, and university library Black Studies and Contemporary Educational Studies collections.” ― Midwest Book Review “This book should be mandatory reading for all teachers, teacher educators, and pre-service students. It is a theoretically and historically grounded book. It provides a powerful, heartbreaking, and textured window into what happens to Black children who go to school more than prepared to learn. It indicates how we, as a society, can develop an ethic of care for Black children and youth.” ― Theresa Perry , professor of Africana Studies and Education, Simmons University “ Affirming Black Students’ Lives and Literacies is a fine book. It is a riveting portrait of Black epistemology, history, and lives as a prelude to explanations of why it is important to learn about Black literate lives. It is, in my opinion, an extraordinarily important book, and it is being published at precisely the right moment.” ― Patricia A. Edwards , professor, Michigan State University “The quest for literacy among those of African descent documented within these pages offers both dismay and inspiration. The personal narratives and current research interwoven here with historical examples are critical for understanding that an individual’s or group’s literacy now and in the future is inextricably tied to elimination of institutionalized ‘isms’ such as racism, post-colonialism, and future iterations of subjugation. Willis et al. lay the foundation for understanding and deconstructing literacy among the African Diaspora.” ― Violet J. Harris , professor emerita, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Arlette Ingram Willis is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, division of Language and Literacy. Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon is professor of literacy and chair of the Department of Reading & Language Arts at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Patriann Smith is a professor of literacy studies at the University of South Florida.