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.

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 increases in proportion each year as generations of black children grow up without an adult male in the home. This work presents a personal examination of black fatherhood. This tale of black men tells the stories of extraordinary men who strive to become something they have never known.

In 51 visually stunning, emotionally compelling portraits, acclaimed photographer Carol Ross presents a hopeful, heartwarming, and caring view of black fatherhood in the United States. In an era that pays little positive attention to black fathers, Rosss inspirational perspective on the relationships between black men and their children is vitally importantand long overdue. Rosss richly textured duotone photographs reveal a group of devoted fathers whose common bond is their profound love for their children. For her subjects, Ross has selected men from all walks of lifecollege professors, filmmakers, technicians, construction workers, and corporate executivesalong with well-known music executives, directors, entertainers, and actors, such as Antonio L. A. Reid, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Funk Master Flex, Doug E. Doug, and Melvin Van Peebles. Film star Samuel L. Jackson, photographed with his daughter, provides the books foreword, and each portrait is accompanied by a poignant personal recollection by the father depicted. Exquisitely designed, "Pop: A Celebration of Black Fatherhood" finally gives black men their own voice about their experience as fathers. Inspired by her own father, Rosss book is, in her words, a round of applause, a bow, a God bless you, '' to all those fathers who take their children to that place where, one day, they can fly on their own.

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.

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.