THIS POST WAS WRITTEN SEVERAL WEEKS AGO. I FORGOT TO UPLOAD THIS YESTERDAY.
So, originally, my collaborator, John (Jay) Washington was going to do the Father’s Day post. Unfortunately, (for me) he has a lot going on and let me know he wouldn’t have time. Jay’s living his best life, and I ain’t mad at him!
So, I sat and thought. Okay, I need to write a Father’s Day post, which would be cool if I ever had one! Father’s Day isn’t something I ever really needed to think about. My mom packed us up and left my father when I was very young. All I know about the man was what was told to me. (And it wasn’t very nice.) I saw him once on my 18th birthday (had no idea who he was when he knocked on the door!) and interrupted my Algebra studies. He showed up with a brown paper bag filled with cash. (Don’t get too excited. It was a small bag.) You know, the ones they used to give you at the liquor store on the corner for your little bottle of hooch! (Not that I’ve ever had one, but I’ve certainly seen them!)
If I had to guess and based on future interactions, (which included late-night calls from bars and conversations that I could barely understand between the noise and his physical state.) that bag had likely once contained a bottle of something. I’m not angry about it. I’ve learned that folks are usually the way they are because of something that happened to them. Sometimes through no fault of their own. (NOT ALL! Some folks are just cray!) I don’t know what happened to him that made him the way he was, and I will never know. That said, I was a fatherless child and never gave Father’s Day a thought. Over the years, I would meet and befriend (marry) many a fatherless child; all of us African American. (Not my friends. My fatherless friends!)
Interestingly, Father’s Day and Juneteenth (and my sister’s birthday) all occur on June 19th this year. (Two of them always do!) So, I started thinking about how the absence of black fathers and slavery might be connected. And that’s not to say that all black fathers are absent! So, please don’t get your panties or your boxers in a bunch! I know quite a few great black dads! (Even the ones that aren’t great husbands, are wonderful, attentive, and loving fathers! They just suck as a spouse.)
But I digress. As a subject of much debate lately, I don’t even recall learning about Juneteenth in school. Perhaps because they didn’t teach it. Although I’m guessing Mr. Z at Palmyra High mentioned it. We might have just been looking at him in his tight pants or having too much fun to pay attention. (I know. Sad.) I am willing to bet that even those that will enjoy the day off on the 20th, don’t really know what Juneteenth is. They just know, they don’t have to go to work and might not even care. I’m guessing my readers know, but just in case. Here’s the deal.
Juneteenth (which is short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when Federal troops arrived in Galveston, TX. According to my research, they came to take control of the state and to make sure that all the slaves were freed. There was only one problem. They showed up about two and a half years late! (FN Texas!) The Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abe Lincoln declared that as of January 1st, 1863 (With a catch) stated, “all enslaved people in the states currently engaged in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” (The catch!)
The Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered, but slavery in Texas remained until General Gordon Granger showed up in Texas and read General Order No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
Slavery had continued. In fact, enslavers relocated to Texas because it “was viewed as a safe haven for slavery.” And of course, some slave owners withheld that whole “freedom” info thing!
Even following Order No. 3, historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. noted, freedom wasn’t automatic for the quarter of a million slaves in Texas! “On plantations, masters had to decide when and how to announce the news — or wait for a government agent to arrive — and it was not uncommon for them to delay until after the harvest,” he wrote.
Ain’t that some s#*t! “Okay, let me get this last bit of free labor!” That following December, slavery in America was formally abolished with the adoption of the 13th Amendment. Make no mistake, black folks built this country, and they did it for free! (And yet we own so little of it because it was often taken!) Much of the generational wealth that is enjoyed by white folks was made possible because of the unpaid labor of black folks. You’re welcome. NOT. Okay, I had to get that off my chest.
In 1865, freed men in the Lone Star state, (bass-ackward state!) organized the first “Jubilee Day” on June 19. It was the first of what became an annual celebration. And as Black people got the hell out of Texas, and moved to other parts of the country, the “Jubilee Day” known as Juneteenth tradition, spread. Ironically, Texas would become the first state to make the day a holiday. (Guilt!) Biden made it a Federal Holiday in 2021.
Some corporations, in 2020 (following the numerous protests) began to recognize Juneteenth as a company holiday. Philadelphia made Juneteenth an official city holiday in 2020. “This designation of Juneteenth represents my administration’s commitment to reckon with our own role in maintaining racial inequities and our understanding of the magnitude of work that lies ahead,” stated the city’s mayor Jim Kenney. Ya think?
Okay, how might slavery be related to the scores of fatherless black folks I know? (They had fathers of course! Just not in their lives! Some rode right past their kids on their plastic, loud- ass big wheels, just never acknowledged their existence!) Well, there’s no short answer. That’s for sure. Let’s start with how the slave trade separated families. Separations started on slave ships and continued to the plantations. Those men that were fathers, were robbed of their families.
Some enslaved people lived in a nuclear family-type situation for a time (Parents and children) so long as they were all owned by the same owner. There was always the threat of separation as family members, specifically men and older children, were sold off. Enslaved children were also gifted to a slaveowner’s children. They were considered valuable property. The effects of slavery have definitely resulted in instability in black families.
This was explored in depth in Jordan Thierry’s film, The Black Fatherhood One review (Booklist ALA) of the project stated, “Thought-provoking…tracing the history of fatherhood in black families from ancient Africa to contemporary America.”
Ken Morris, Jr., Director of Intercultural Life, Cornell College, IA calls the film, “Very powerful…The film brilliantly illustrated the relationship between African American fathers and their children, and the impact of chattel enslavement on the African family unit. The film is successful in presenting an image of African American men that counters the negative and often oversimplified stereotypes of African American fathers.”
“In the first half of the film, Thierry begins by telling his own family story, then with the help of historians and others, traces the roots of the fatherless Black home, revealing a history much more complex and profound than is commonly known. The film digs deep to explore how Black families functioned in Africa before slavery, and how slavery, racism, and other recent challenges such as mass incarceration affect Black fatherhood. It looks beyond major historical events and discusses their psychological impacts.”
Honorable Charles B. Rangel of NY spoke about the destruction of the black family in July of 2005.
“The black family has yet to recover from the destructive effects of
slavery. In 1712, British slave owner, Willie Lynch was invited to the
colony of Virginia to teach his methods of keeping slaves under control
to American slave owners. Almost three hundred years later, the
techniques that he prescribed seem to have not only been successful in
controlling slaves but lasting as a means of weakening and destroying the black family. In slavery families were purposely divided with husband and
wives separated from each other and their children. Black males were
humiliated and whipped in front of their wives and children. Stripped
of their power and pride, black men were seen as weak and black women
had to be the strength of the household, distorting the traditional
family structure. The black community is suffering from the lack of
families. Marriage has become virtually impossible as black men are
disproportionately incarcerated, unemployed and victims of early death.
Black women on the other hand, have a higher probability of graduating
from high school and attending college. This disparity in
qualifications render the two highly incompatible. As a result, an
alarming two-thirds of black children are born out of wedlock and a
disturbing proportion of them grow up fatherless.
Without a father in the home, where do girls find their model for a future husband?
Where do boys find their model for being a father? Without such an example,
children of fatherless homes are doomed to continue the cycle.
Fatherless children are more vulnerable to suffer from societal ills.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, children
who are raised without a father are more likely to be poor, have higher
drop-out rates, are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol
abuse, are more likely to commit criminal acts and are more likely to
get pregnant as teenagers than those raised in two-parent homes.
The bottom line is the absence of a father in the family can be detrimental to the well-being of children and their development.
And not only were black men separated from their family during slavery. Sharecropping might also cause a black man to leave his family. We were forced to “Separate to Survive.” According to the US Census Bureau, in 1960, about 22% (up from about 9% in the 50’s) of African American children lived with a single parent. (Usually Mom!) By 1968, that number increased to over 30%. By 2011, that number more than doubled and has since reached about 75%!
So, why might that be?
How about a more recent example of separating to survive? In the ’60s, a mother’s eligibility for child welfare benefits meant there could be no “cohabitation.” In other words, no man in the house. This separation of black fathers (or even father figures) from their families was a result of social and economic policies. According to the Center for Law and Social Policy mass incarceration policies, as well as barriers in the child welfare system disproportionately harm Black families. African American men are incarcerated at a higher rate than any other race. And you need not do anything other than read the headlines daily to confirm that black men are also routinely victims of police harassment and violence. Isn’t it time that we acknowledge the link between slavery and the destruction of the black family?
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Raspberry delivered the keynote of a conference on African American fathers held in the fall of 1998 at historic Morehouse College.
“WE GATHERED together because of our shared concern about the national trend of father absence that is affecting nearly all races and ethnic groups in the United States, and because of our particular concern about father absence in the African American community.”
The address closed with, “WE GATHERED knowing in our hearts that the estrangement of fathers from their children is wrong, that children need both their fathers and their mothers, and that neither the African American community nor the nation as a whole, can truly prosper unless and until we reverse the alarming trend of father absence. WE GATHERED together inspired by the strength, courage, and determination of the countless African American men who are heroic models of responsible fatherhood. We acknowledge the many and varied barriers, including racial discrimination, economic and educational disadvantages, and negative cultural attitudes and influences, that undermine the possibility of responsible fatherhood for many African American men”.
“The absent Black father” myth rests upon the false assumptions that Black fathers simply value parenting less than other fathers and that individual choices, rather than structural and systemic racism”.
Many Black men are doing the best that they can. Of course, some can do better, but for fatherless children like myself, my research has provided me with a little insight and a lot of understanding. So, shout out to Black Dads and shout out to Black Mom’s (Yeah, I know Mother’s Day was last month!) for holding it down and for often being both mom and dad! So, let’s celebrate Juneteenth and fathers and close out on what appears to be a positive note.
On 6/1, details of a report from CA’s reparations task force surfaced. (First task force of its kind!) It details how slavery has affected every aspect of Black life in America producing “innumerable harms,” that are still experienced today.
P.R. Lockhart writes, “The report, which will be released Wednesday, offers a comprehensive look at the impacts of enslavement and generations of discrimination on Black Californians and Black Americans more broadly. It finds that the damage to Black communities is extensive and that a variety of intentionally crafted policy, judicial decisions, and racism by private actors has created a widespread exclusion of Black people that has not been sufficiently addressed at any level of government.
The California report covers not just the immediate impact of enslavement, but also the harms of decades of political neglect, finding that there has been sustained damage to generations of Black Americans. The damage has had a lasting effect on the political, economic, social, physical, mental, and cultural well-being of Black people, particularly those descended from the formerly enslaved.
The harms were largely intentional, crafted through local and national policies that reinforced one another, ensuring that the formerly enslaved and their descendants would be denied even basic protections under the law.”
Kamilah Moore, a Los Angeles-based attorney and reparatory justice scholar who chairs California’s reparations task force is hopeful that the report will inspire other states to follow suit.
Well. All I can say to that is, it’s about damn time.