AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF FUNCTIONAL ILLITERACY, AND AN EXPERIMENTAL INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM WERE CONDUCTED. IN MACON COUNTY, ALABAMA THE SAMPLE SELECTION CONSISTED OF APPROXIMATELY 650 NEGRO AND 10 WHITE ILLITERATES FROM A SOUTHERN COMMUNITY. DATA WERE GATHERED THROUGH INTERVIEWS, QUESTIONNAIRES, TESTS, AND RATING TECHNIQUES. DATA WERE ANALYZED ON PERSONAL VARIABLES, EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND, EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS, ECONOMIC STATUS, AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND PARTICIPATION. APPROXIMATELY 18 PAGES REPORTED CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. SOME OF THE MORE GENERAL FINDINGS WERE--(1) 96 PERCENT OF THE SUBJECTS HAD COMPLETED ONLY THE EIGHTH GRADE OR LESS, (2) REASONS FOR ILLITERACY WERE MANY AND VARIED, AND (3) TWO OF THE MAJOR PROBLEMS WERE FOUND TO BE THE INDIFFERENT ATTITUDE OF THE STATE TOWARD ILLITERATE NEGROES AND CAUCASIANS AND A COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN BETWEEN THE RACES. THE TEACHING AND TESTING EXPERIMENTS INDICATED ENTHUSIASTIC PARTICIPATION BY THE SUBJECTS. THE SUBJECT MATTER OFFERED APPEARED TO MEET THEIR NEEDS. THE RECOMMENDATIONS SUGGESTED MEANS TO AMELIORATE PROBLEMS AND PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ILLITERATE PERSONS. (RS)