Fathers and Freedom
If
you attend June 19th services at Trinity Episcopal
Cathedral in Cleveland, OH you might have heard this message. To you
I say, But wait there's more! Please continue reading to get more of
my thoughts on Juneteenth and Fathers' Day.
Matthew
7:9-10
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a
stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
In 2021, I suppose as an acknowledgement of the
reality of slavery and its long-term effects on American Descendants
of Slaves (ADOS), the U.S. Congress in a very rare show of
solidarity, enacted a law making Juneteenth a Federal holiday.
A little background here. Schools in this country
typically teach that Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator, “freed
the slaves” with Proclamation 95 (the Emancipation Proclamation) on
January 1, 1863. Proclamation 95 however only freed slaves in states
that were currently part of the Confederate States of America (CSA)
and in rebellion against the government of the USA. Proclamation 95
was a political and military tactic whose goal was to destabilize the
Confederacy by encouraging slave populations to flee to northern and
western non slave holding states.
On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, TX, Union Army
General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 which was a
statement about the Union Army's military rule of the defeated
Confederacy and said among other things that “The people of Texas
are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the
Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” Black
dockworkers quickly spread the news to the black population of
Galveston touching off a week's worth of prayer and celebration.
General Order No. 3, like it's more well known
predecessor Proclamation 95, was one of 20 “Emancipation
Proclamations” issued in the United States from 1780 to 1865 that
attempted to put a band-aid on the gaping wound of slavery. In fact
many of these proclamations were concerned less with how to actually
deal with the issue of freed slaves and more with enumerating exactly
how slave owners were to be compensated for their loss of a
significant financial resource.
In 2022 Juneteenth falls on the day we also
celebrate Fathers and Fatherhood. Does anyone appreciate the irony of
celebrating freedom and fatherhood on the same day, when for so long
black men have been circumscribed by the dominant society from truly celebrating either.
Prior to the end of the Civil War black families
lived in constant fear that they would be separated from each other
by a system that refused to acknowledge their human need to create
and care for families. Fathers and mothers were sold away from each
other and from their children, many never to be heard from again.
After the Civil War it was common to see ads in newspapers and
publications from formerly enslaved people trying to find family
members.
Libra Hilde, in her 2020 book, Slavery,
Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty in African American Communities over
the Long Nineteenth Century,
maintained that despite the challenges of living under a system of
cruelty and complete disregard for their humanity, Black
and enslaved men were loving, involved, and emotionally invested in
their children, despite the barriers erected by white society. She
demonstrates that Black fathers consistently provided for their
children during and after slavery. Enslaved men regularly supported
their families and communities in covert ways, as “their influence
over their children was often subtle, indirect, and hidden from
‘dominant society’,” subverting and resisting the expectations
of white society on a daily basis “within the intimate spaces of
the father/child relationship” Hilde contends that caretaking was a
form of resistance for enslaved men, as they attempted to covertly
reappropriate the paternal role back from their enslavers.
There were instances where enslaved men, if they had
a marketable skill, could make extra money if their master allowed
them to sell their services. (The original side hustle). They might
then be allowed to purchase their freedom. If successful, they would
often then face a cruel choice. In many slave holding states the
status of an unborn child was determined by the status of the mother.
Thus a free black woman's child would be born free and an enslaved
black woman's child would be born a slave. Black men who found a way
out of enslavement, through either escape or earning extra money,
very often had to decide whether to take the opportunity to gain
their own freedom and hope they could come for their family later or
ensure freedom for their wife and/or children while they themselves
remained under the lash.
As a member of the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) I have
to give a shout out here to Absalom Jones. At the age of 16 Absalom was
sold away from his mother and several siblings. In 1770 he was
allowed to marry an enslaved woman named Mary. By 1778 Absalom had
earned and saved enough money to purchase his freedom. With the
memory of his lost family in mind he bought his wife's freedom
instead. In this way, he insured his children would be born free, and
not as slaves. He was not freed himself until six years later in
1784.
Many people are under the mistaken impression that
the attack on black men as fathers ended when slavery ended. Oh that
I could say that was so!
For a brief period of history which we call
Reconstruction it seemed as if the country might be able to begin
healing from the long bleak period of human cruelty and the attendant
pain. Then came the end of reconstruction and the beginning of almost
another century of enshrining the secondary status of black people in both
law and custom.
Black men were portrayed in news and entertainment
media as “bad” fathers, neglectful and uninterested in their
children, leaving black women to be seen as “superwomen” raising
children without the support of black fathers. (That's a looong
discussion for another day).
Just as during enslavement the role of black men as
fathers was constricted and restricted by the dominant society.
During the period we call Jim Crow black men were targeted for both
judicial and extrajudicial execution. If a black man tried to stand
up as a protector for his family against white aggression, he ran the
risk of being killed. Many black men in the south were
forced to choose leaving their families to find economic
opportunities in the north or west, thereby separating them from
their partners and children. Those who chose to stay were forced to
suffer cruelty and economic deprivation and restraints on their
ability to care for their families.
After the Great Depression and World War II the U.S.
began looking at ways to help returning veterans and build the middle
class. Here again black fathers were discouraged or even legally
banned from taking advantage of programs designed to uplift families.
Then came the creation of social welfare programs in
the 1960s and 1970s. “Welfare” was originally called Aid to
Families with Dependent Children or AFDC. It was a
program to give families a hand when things got rough. Keeping them
and their children out of poverty. There was no requirement that
recipients had to be families with single parents (usually women) as
heads of households. As with many such programs when black people
began to use these programs as a means to try and improve their
lives, changes were implemented which brought direct harm to the
institution of the black family. Suddenly families with mothers and fathers present were not eligible for assistance. Black fathers were
very often targeted for enforcement, with families under constant
scrutiny to make sure they were not “scamming the system”. If
fathers were present in the home and the family was receiving welfare
assistance the father or mother could be arrested and sent to jail.
Thus black fathers were once again faced with the choice of leaving
their families to help make sure they were fed or working covertly to
circumvent a system which was being constantly redesigned and adapted
to criminalize them as they exercised their role as fathers.
In 1965 Daniel Moynihan co-authored what became
known as the Moynihan Report. In this treatise Moynihan maintained
that there was a crisis in the black community because of instability
of black families. Nowhere did he consider the ways in which the then
current welfare system penalized black fathers who didn't
“abandon” their families. Imagine being a black child bombarded with the message that your father, indeed your entire family, was bad. If your family needed public assistance and your father was around he was a criminal and you had to be always on the
lookout for the social worker who might come and take him away. If he wasn't around he was a "deadbeat dad", a lowlife, who abandoned his responsibilities. Despite these assaults black fathers continued to endure. In
many ways falling back on lessons learned from slave ancestors. I
refer you again to Libra Hilde. Just as had been the case during the
long period of enslavement “Black men were loving, involved, and
emotionally invested in their children, despite the barriers erected
by white society. ….Black fathers consistently provided for their
children …. and regularly supported their families and communities
in covert ways, as “their influence over their children was often
subtle, indirect, and hidden from ‘dominant society’,”
subverting and resisting the expectations of white society on a daily
basis “within the intimate spaces of the father/child relationship”
Then came the “War
on Drugs” further increasing the criminalization of black men and
the assault on their role as fathers. In 1970 black people
represented 11.1% of the general population in the U.S. But 46.4% of
the prison population in December 1973. From 1973 to 1979, the black
rate of incarceration rose by 47.9 percent, compared to a rise of
only 40.6 percent among whites. So now there was a significant
percentage of black fathers once again forced away from their
families. A two-year study
by the National Research Council concluded that the increase in
incarceration rates was historically unprecedented, that the U.S. far
outpaced the incarceration rates elsewhere in the world, and that
high incarceration rates disproportionately affected Hispanic
and black communities.
With further
infringement on individual liberty, such as the 1994 crime bill, came
more assaults on black men's ability to function as fathers. If you
were convicted of a felony your ability to work and support yourself
as well as your family became even more severely limited. Felons
could not vote in most states. If you were a felon you could not
apply for most types of federal and/or state assistance, including
housing, food and education. Perhaps one of the most egregious
infringements of rights, which harkens back to the early days of the
“welfare reform” movement, when the mere presence of black fathers
became a crime, was the prohibition of felons in public
housing. Those living in public housing were not allowed to have
convicted felons living with or even visiting with them. If you were
a black man released from prison as a convicted felon and your family
lived in public housing you were prohibited by law from living with
them. If you attempted to do so you risked further incarceration and
your family risked eviction. Once again black men had to draw upon
their ingenuity and the wisdom of the ancestors to function as
fathers in a society still hostile to them.
Many times men and
their current or former partners had private arrangements among
themselves to manage their family situation and finances. They would
visit their children or even in some cases share custody. They would
buy clothes, food, diapers etc when needed. Then came efforts to
corral “dead beat dads”. Social workers would force “single”
mothers to turn in fathers of their children or else be denied needed
benefits. These men were then put into a system which took away their
ability to function as fathers based on their own and their partners
circumstances. They were now given set amounts that they had to pay,
not directly to their partners or children but to a court system
which already considered them criminals. This then became a barrier
to finding a job which led to inability to keep up with court
mandated payments resulting in incarceration – a vicious circle.
So while you're celebrating Juneteenth on this
Fathers' Day, think about what we need to do in order to free
thousands of black men to be the best fathers they can be.
