The purpose of this applied dissertation was to examine the effects of a preschool emergent literacy program on young African American children from a low socioeconomic background. The preschool is located in an urban setting in North Carolina. All students participating in this study were identified as at-risk for school failure. The behavior and performance of these students indicated a particular deficit in these students' oral language, oral vocabulary, alphabet and letter recognition, phonemic awareness skills, and concepts about print. The writer developed a 16-week intervention program that included a daily read-aloud and shared-reading program, a conversational story-retelling program, an alphabet-knowledge and phonemic-awareness program, and ongoing professional development for the classroom teachers. The classroom teacher and 2 assistants worked with the writer to deliver the intervention program. The program itself was implemented daily and delivered to both large and small groups as part of the regular day in the classroom setting. Pre- and posttests were used to determine the progress made by the students in the areas of oral language, oral vocabulary, letter naming and letter recognition, letter-sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, and concepts about print. The findings revealed that the solution strategies implemented were effective in improving the emergent literacy skills of all the student participants. The targeted outcomes were met in terms of oral language, oral vocabulary, letter naming and letter recognition, and concepts about print. However, the targeted outcomes were not met in terms of letter-sound knowledge and phonemic awareness skills, although the students made considerable progress in these areas. The results of the study speak to the benefits of a read-aloud and shared-reading program as well as direct instruction in letter recognition and concepts about print at the prekindergarten level, especially for at-risk children. Early childhood educators need to increase their knowledge of the effects of a preschool emergent literacy program on at-risk African American students in order to equip the preschoolers with the prerequisite skills to be strong academically and help ensure that these students have the opportunity to enter kindergarten and advance more readily. Appendixes contain the Alphabet Knowledge Informal Assessment, Phonemic Awareness Informal Assessment and Details of the Implementation Format and Timeline.(Contains 30 tables.) [Ed.D. Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University.]