Some ways that black literary and rhetorical traditions may be employed for improving instruction in the community college classroom are presented in this paper. As background information, chapter one examines the history of the black American literary, linguistic, and rhetorical heritage with some emphasis placed upon the effect on language of the African heritage and the subsequent enslavement and later isolation in ghettos experienced by black Americans. Chapters two, three, and four are concerned with black American folk literature and black verbal strategies. Chapter five describes some aesthetic and educational implications of the black folk tradition, showing how it can be used in the classroom. Chapter six points out the need for black Americans to use their native dialects as well as other aspects of their folk literary and rhetorical traditions. Chapter seven deals with some methods of improving attitudes about language and of improving the learning process found in the black dialect and in the black folk literacy types. Chapter eight proposes practical classroom strategies to alter negative attitudes about language and dialect. (Author/TS)