Tatum, A. W. (1999). Reading and the African American male: Identity, equity, and power. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62-64.

Tatum relates that the sounds, meanings, perceptions, and the sensual experience of his first encounters with words seemed to open up a new way of life for him. He narrates that self-examination of his childhood served as his compass to understand how competing passions weighed out over time.

Full article can be found here:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40017045