A historically responsive literacy framework examines teaching strategies and structures that honor the histories, identities, and literary practices of all youth from diverse cultures, and especially those who have been traditionally underserved in schools. The framework builds on other work on culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies and is grounded in the history of Black literary societies, a rich source of education and intellectual pursuit led by Black scholars in the 19th century. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is a leading voice for equity, antiracism, and culturally and historically responsive teaching. Dr. Muhammad looked to history to learn how these groups defined and shaped literacy -- a term they used synonymously with education -- and wove key lessons into her recommendations for schools today. Those lessons include incorporating oral literacy, collaborative learning, interdisciplinarity, and social consciousness. She embeds them in a set of five educational pursuits: identity, criticality, intellect, skills, and joy. This article is an interview with Dr. Muhammad about how she is working with schools to embed those lessons and build equity through the historically responsive literacy framework.