A persistent achievement gap between White and minority students in the United States has been monitored and reported for many decades, yet progress toward closing the gap has been remarkably slow. This is particularly consequential for the future of education in the United States considering that students of color are expected to make up 59% of the student population by 2024. However, the elementary and secondary educator workforce is still overwhelmingly White. The most recent U.S. Department of Education Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), a nationally representative survey of teachers and principals, showed that 82% of public school teachers identified as White. This figure has hardly changed in more than 15 years; in 2000, 84% of public school teachers identified as White. Education leaders are also predominantly White. In the 2011-2012 school year, only 20% of public school principals were individuals of color. This racial disparity might be a disadvantage for minority students. Evidence suggests that students of color benefit from receiving instruction from teachers of color. Compared with their White colleagues, teachers of color are more likely to: (1) have higher expectations of students of color; (2) confront issues of racism; (3) serve as advocates and cultural brokers; and (4) develop more trusting relationships with students, particularly those with whom they share a cultural background. Given that this performance and staffing disparity exists, this article asks what can a predominately White educator workforce do to bridge the racial gap and be the most effective educators they can for a minority student population? This review explores the work of four authors that seek to offer guidance to educators on how to implement culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in their classrooms. Authors included in this review share the following characteristics: (1) they hold a PhD in education research; (2) they are identified as African American; and (3) they draw upon academic practices such as research, data-analysis, and case study to develop recommendations. The books reviewed include: (1) "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood ... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education" (Emdin, 2016); (2) "The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children" (Second Edition; Ladson-Billings, 2009); (3) "Multiplication Is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People's Children" (Delpit, 2012); and (4) "Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students" (Hammond & Jackson, 2015). Strategies presented in this article were included based upon emphasis of importance, effectiveness, and agreement between all four texts. From these strategies, four broad themes emerged: (1) Acknowledging culture; (2) Self-cultivated educator factors; (3) Pedagogical decisions; and (4) Student-teacher relationship factors. This article focuses on the first two themes; a forthcoming article will focus on the last two.