This paper, presented as part of a military lecture series given by the Division of Continuing Education and Community Service Speakers' Bureau of the University of Hawaii to military personnel at Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter, investigates the origins and present status of Black English. A discussion of early studies in the Gullah dialect (spoken chiefly in Georgia and South Carolina) is used to point out that Gullah, or any other speech, does not have a "mutilated grammar," does not "violate the rules of logic," and does have rules other than following the "line of least resistance." Linguists accept without question the equality of linguistic talents among children of all races. Techniques for obtaining samples of natural speech and for testing the language ability of Black ghetto children have been based on misconceptions of language and language usage. The author argues against Bereiter's assumptions concerning the "underdeveloped" language of culturally deprived children and contrasts these assumptions with those of Labov, Stewart, Fasold, and others. He examines attitudes toward language and states that schools could help human relations greatly by making students aware of such linguistic phenomenon as different levels of speech usage, which do not necessarily coincide or have the same implications among speakers of different backgrounds. (AMM)