By Lee A. Daniels
Before the heat got too great. Before the criticism forced them to shelve – at least, momentarily – the moral-deadening posture of “Lost Cause romanticism.” Before somebody told them You can’t say things like that today and get away with it, the self-proclaimed Christian pressure group, the FAMiLY Leader, revealed that when it comes to black Americans, its “traditional” views are very old-fashioned indeed.

By Stacey Patton
On Monday, the New Jersey State Assembly approved a measure that will allow adults who were adopted as infants to get a copy of their birth certificate showing the names of their biological parents.

By Tarice L.S. Gray
Does the economic downturn mean an increase in domestic violence? The recession and its aftermath has been blamed for a rise in domestic violence. One in every four women in this country could be a victim, and it may be getting worse.

By Tarice L.S. Gray
It’s not a new phenomenon – children being raised primarily by their grandparents or other close relatives. About six million are, according to the Kinship Care Legal Research Center, an initiative of the American Bar Association.

By Dionne Ford
A couple of days before Christmas last year, my daughters pleaded for a Kwanzaa celebration. (I think they were under the impression that a second holiday meant twice the gifts). Outwardly, I was excited that my oldest daughter—who describes herself as white although she is biracial—was interested in this celebration of African culture.

By Jackie Jones
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), heralded as welfare reform during the Clinton administration, comes up before Congress next year for reauthorization.

Whether the program, which was purportedly intended to assist the needy while gradually moving them off assistance and into the workplace, will continue as presently constructed or morph into something else remains to be seen.

By C. Nicole Mason
Lately you cannot turn on the television without some version of baby daddy or mama drama played out on talk shows,with black men and women usually at the center of the heated discussion for all the world to see. The fate of children too often hinging on four now infamous words–You are not the father!

By TaRessa Stovall
“Why don’t you guys study like the kids from Africa?”
This is the question posed by a white male high school teacher to his “virtually all African-American” 12th grade English class, where not a single student raised their hand when asked if they have a father living at home.

By Stacey Patton
I’ve never had a strong paternal longing. Sadly, I’ve spent much of my adult years wondering whether black fathers are even necessary. And I’ve listened to black women being demonized for asserting the roles of mother and father and for telling their daughters to be prepared to raise children on their own because a black man might not stick around.

So it with mixed emotions that I respond to President Barack Obama’s new “Fatherhood Initiative” which is being coordinated by the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.