This research sought to examine the communicative impact of the Black English speech pattern, known as call-response, on African Americans within an educational environment. An ethnographic study of an Historically Black College and University (HBCU) classroom was conducted to ascertain the pedagogical and cultural meanings this speech event held for an African American instructor and her African American students. Detailed fieldnotes, videotapes of classroom interactions, participant observation, and in-depth interviews comprised the primary means of data collection for this study. Results of the study indicate that call-response did occur in the university classroom. Particularly, the study yielded data which revealed that call-response is initiated in the classroom through a variety of speaker techniques which are interpreted by the class members as "calls." It was also found that the performance of Black speech acts in the classroom did not serve as a detriment to students, but that by engaging in call-response, the students and the instructor together forwarded deeply embedded African American cultural values of sharing and uniqueness. Key to Transcript Symbols are appended. (Contains 1 note.)