This paper explicates methods to motivate African American students to exhibit attitudes and behaviors that are conducive to high academic achievement. In particular, it argues that educational models must acknowledge and correct students' sense of academic futility. Academic futility measures student perceptions of the extent to which factors in the academic environment inhibit success in school. Student academic futility is the student's feeling that the academic "deck of life" is stacked against them and that there is relatively little they can do to overcome this. The paper describes using popular culture in several interventions as an academic futility intervention tool, particularly materials that use cartoons and illustrations to help students overcome academic futility. Another section describes developing a school climate to impact students' sense of futility in 8 years at the Piney Woods Country Life School, a rural Mississippi private school serving African American students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This section explains the academic grounding of academic futility intervention approaches and their implementation at Piney Woods, including needs assessment, curriculum development, staff development, student development, physical environment, administration, and resource development. Appendixes contain questions for the academic futility scale, an example of an intervention poem, and research findings. (Contains 37 references.) (JB)