College of Education faculty and staff at an HBCU developed an educational justice based reading club for freshmen teacher preparation students in an effort to provide authentic and important retention and reading experiences. The project sought to increase student retention through the building of this community and passion for educational justice, as well as reading skills. This article details the development, research-base, recruitment, and implementation of the reading club, as well as student feedback attained at the end of the semester. Students reported a number of benefits of their participation in the club as well as positive perceptions of the experience. Additionally, although the number of participants was small, all participants did return to the institution the following year.