The purpose of this critical, heuristic case study was to explore the phenomenon of giftedness as experienced by African American males through the exploration and analysis of their schooling experiences while also raising their level of awareness about what it means to be a gifted African American male as a result of interactions with the researcher and other participants. The central question posed was: What do the experiences of gifted African American males in public school systems suggest about strategies needed to promote their success, recruitment and retention in Gifted and Talented programs? Data sources included: (1) participant autobiographies; (2) official documents; (3) semi structured interviews; (4) theoretical focus group interviews; and (5) participant observations. A finding was many of their experiences were rooted in elementary schooling; all of them felt they would have been more successful if program structures were in place throughout the K-12 schooling experience.