Black Fathers Matter motorcade rolls through Washington DC

A special Father’s Day parade was held in Washington, D.C., called the Black Fathers Matter motorcade.

Writing in the Chicago Sun Times, Mona Charen praised the event for highlighting the difference a father makes. She said a new survey adds bricks to the huge wall of evidence that dads are important to children’s welfare.

Kids who grow up with two parents are 3 1/2 times less likely to live in poverty than those raised by single parents. Among African Americans, 13% of children in two-parent homes are poor, compared with 46% of those living with their mothers alone. The figures for whites show similar ratios.

Regarding children going to college: Among Black kids raised by single moms, 15% get a college degree (mostly women). If Dad is also in the home, 28% get the diploma. Overall, about 1 in 3 Americans gets a college degree, so intact African American families are almost at that level.

Regarding trouble with the law: Among Black kids raised by single moms, about 14% have at some time been incarcerated. For those raised with two parents, only 8% have. As the Institute for Family Studies stresses, outcomes for African American children from two-parent homes are better across a range of measures than are those for white children raised by single moms.