In this study the freely written responses of tenth grade students to four short stories written by black American writers were collected and analyzed. Specific purposes of the study included comparing (1) the racial attitudes of a black literature reading group and a control group, (2) black and white students' level of comprehension, and (3) differences in the reading responses made by boys and girls, blacks and whites, and students with varying levels of IQ, reading ability, racial attitude, and literature comprehension. One hundred forty racially mixed students, enrolled in a large suburban school system in the state of New York, were assigned to experimental and control groups. The control group followed its regular program except for taking a standardized reading test and pre- and posttest attitude measures. The significant statistical evidence gathered by chi-square and t-tests indicated that literature readings did not have an impact on students' racial attitude toward either blacks or whites. The mean literature comprehension score indicated that both black and white students adequately but minimally comprehended the selections. An analysis of covariance of IQ and literature scores revealed a significantly higher level of literature comprehension for the black student group. (Author/WR)