Abstract: This study examined an innovative literacy education program for inner city students that have shown promise for closing the black-white achievement gap and for bridging the digital divide, particularly with regard to African American males. The program is known as Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth (DUSTY) because it engages students in creating multimedia stories based on their interests and experiences. In this study I followed a cohort of eight elementary and middle school students as they went through the DUSTY program, and I used qualitative analysis to determine how the use of multimedia technology was combined with community building and culturally relevant pedagogy to provide literacy learning opportunities for the students. Community-building activities in DUSTY were aimed at breaking students' feeling of alienation and isolation in a literacy learning environment. Culturally relevant pedagogy celebrated the students' culture by allowing them to develop stories about their own families, friends, and neighborhoods. The multimedia technology enabled students to combine written language with other familiar modes of representation as they learned to communicate meaning effectively. As a participant-observer in the DUSTY program, I was able to gather data in the form of daily field notes on activities in the classroom and on casual conversations I had with other participants. I also gathered data more formally by tape recording interviews of students, teachers, parents, and other community people. Finally, I collected examples of the work students did as digital storytellers. My analysis of these data was organized around the theory-based concepts of scaffolding and trust. In general, my findings suggest that all three program elements---multimedia technology, community building, and culturally relevant pedagogy---worked together in allowing DUSTY to establish the kinds of trust and scaffolding that were needed to foster literacy development among the students. An analysis of the students' individual stories gave a revealing look into the direction of the psyche and emotional growth. As an educational practitioner this kind of insight can be employed as a valuable diagnostic tool for curriculum and lesson planning. The very nature of the digital story reveals important information for the teacher and parent that if used professionally can become a powerful literacy tool in the effort to close the achievement gap and bridge the digital divide.