Drawing from ethnographic data, this paper explores how African American male teachers working with African American male students performed their pedagogy. This paper highlights how teachers' understanding of African American males social and educational needs shaped their pedagogical performance. Interestingly however, teachers' performance was contingent on the diverse ways they imagined African American males should engage within their social and political worlds. These findings suggest then that African American male teachers' pedagogic performances were both complex and multifaceted.