Black Fatherhood

Common stereotypes portray black fathers as being largely absent from their families. Yet while black fathers are less likely than white and Hispanic fathers to marry their child's mother, many continue to parent through cohabitation and visitation, providing caretaking, financial, and other in-kind support. This volume captures the meaning and practice of black fatherhood in its many manifestations, exploring two-parent families, cohabitation, single custodial fathering, stepfathering, noncustodial visitation, and parenting by extended family members and friends. Contributors examine ways that black men perceive and decipher their parenting responsibilities, paying careful attention to psychosocial, economic, and political factors that affect the ability to parent. Chapters compare the diversity of African American fatherhood with negative portrayals in politics, academia, and literature and, through qualitative analysis and original profiles, illustrate the struggle and intent of many black fathers to be responsible caregivers. This collection also includes interviews with daughters of absent fathers and concludes with the effects of certain policy decisions on responsible parenting.

The fatherless black family is a problem that grows to bigger proportions every year as generations of black children grow up without an adult male in their homes. As this dire pattern grows worse, what can men do who hope to break it, when there are so few models and so little guidance in their own homes and communities? Where can they learn to “become Dad?” When Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Pitts—who himself grew up with an abusive father whose absences came as a relief—interviewed dozens of men across the country, he found both discouragement and hope, as well as deep insights into his own roles as son and father. An unflinching investigation, both personal and journalistic, of black fatherhood in America, this is the best, most pivotal book on this profoundly important issue.

Analyzing published and archival oral histories of formerly enslaved African Americans, Libra R. Hilde explores the meanings of manhood and fatherhood during and after the era of slavery, demonstrating that black men and women articulated a surprisingly broad and consistent vision of paternal duty across more than a century. Complicating the tendency among historians to conflate masculinity within slavery with heroic resistance, Hilde emphasizes that, while some enslaved men openly rebelled, many chose subtle forms of resistance in the context of family and local community. She explains how a significant number of enslaved men served as caretakers to their children and shaped their lives and identities. From the standpoint of enslavers, this was particularly threatening--a man who fed his children built up the master's property, but a man who fed them notions of autonomy put cracks in the edifice of slavery. Fatherhood highlighted the agonizing contradictions of the condition of enslavement, and to be an involved father was to face intractable dilemmas, yet many men tried. By telling the story of the often quietly heroic efforts that enslaved men undertook to be fathers, Hilde reveals how formerly enslaved African Americans evaluated their fathers (including white fathers) and envisioned an honorable manhood.

Despite a decade of sociological research documenting black fathers’ significant level of engagement with their children, stereotypes of black men as “deadbeat dads” still shape popular perceptions and scholarly discourse. In Fathering from the Margins, sociologist Aasha M. Abdill draws on four years of fieldwork in low-income, predominantly black Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to dispel these destructive assumptions. She considers the obstacles faced—and the strategies used—by black men with children. Abdill presents qualitative and quantitative evidence that confirms the increasing presence of black fathers in their communities, arguing that changing social norms about gender roles in black families have shifted fathering behaviors. Black men in communities such as Bed-Stuy still face social and structural disadvantages, including disproportionate unemployment and incarceration, with significant implications for family life. Against this backdrop, black fathers attempt to reconcile contradictory beliefs about what makes one a good father and what makes one a respected man by developing different strategies for expressing affection and providing parental support. Black men’s involvement with their children is affected by the attitudes of their peers, the media, and especially the women of their families and communities: from the grandmothers who often become gatekeepers to involvement in a child’s life to the female-dominated sectors of childcare, primary school, and family-service provision. Abdill shows how supporting black men in their quest to be—and be seen as—family men is the key to securing not only their children's well-being but also their own.

In 2013, CNN journalist, Don Lemon, said, "more than 72% of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means more than 72% of children in the African-American community are born to absent fathers. And studies show that the lack of a male role model for said children is an express train right to prison, continuing the cycle." This statement is problematic in many ways, and there's information out now that actually combats this common myth. Lemon boldly claimed that Black children born out of wedlock are fatherless, which is not entirely true because the family structure is varied. There's unmarried couples who have children, but live together, co-parenting couples, stepfathers, and more. Many Black dads are extremly present and engaged in their children's lives.? This is why this book is critical now.Dear Black Dads: Wisdom For Your Journey to Fatherhood is a book designed to help combat this stat and change the narrative of Black fatherhood with wisdom, wit, and love. The book that you hold in your hand is a collection of stories and perspectives from Black Dads representing various forms of Blackness, hometowns, occupations, and more. The one thing that ties them together? The love and insight that they have as Black Dads. They came together to impart wisdom on Black fathers? who are looking to excel in the most pivotal role that a Black man can have in his life time.

"Image of a Black Father" was written in the hope of inspiring young African-American men: For them to come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to except their responsibility of father-hood. The two men that I write about in this book had a great love and respect for all mankind and showing no partiality. This impressed me. The character of these men portrayed an image of fatherhood. My biological father, St. Clair Crane showed me how to live in a world of adversity and maintain dignity and respect. My spiritual father William Yaeger taught me how to live and love across racial barriers and not loose my identity. Both of these men one black and the other white etched into my heart the "Image of a Black Father". Charlie Crane was the founder of Greater True Light Baptist Church, where he served as pastor for twenty years. Charlie also established "Uncle Charlie's Group Home Inc.", a behavior modification program for delinquent boys: ages from twelve to seventeen years old. 99% of these boys were raised in homes where there was no father: which sadden Charlie a great deal. Charlie was director of the home for twelve years. Charlie attended Simpson Bible College where he received his Bachelor's Art Degree. He received a Master's Degree in Christian Education from the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary. Presently he is Chaplin at Community Hospice in Modesto CA. Modesto has been Charlie's city of residence for the past forty-seven years.

Across the political spectrum, unwed fatherhood is denounced as one of the leading social problems of today. Doing the Best I Can is a strikingly rich, paradigm-shifting look at fatherhood among inner-city men often dismissed as "deadbeat dads." Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson examine how couples in challenging straits come together and get pregnant so quickly--without planning. The authors chronicle the high hopes for forging lasting family bonds that pregnancy inspires, and pinpoint the fatal flaws that often lead to the relationship's demise. They offer keen insight into a radical redefinition of family life where the father-child bond is central and parental ties are peripheral. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Doing the Best I Can shows how mammoth economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of fatherhood among the urban poor. Intimate interviews with more than 100 fathers make real the significant obstacles faced by low-income men at every step in the familial process: from the difficulties of romantic relationships, to decision-making dilemmas at conception, to the often celebratory moment of birth, and finally to the hardships that accompany the early years of the child's life, and beyond.