MAD DADS* (John Foster, Eddie Staton and Reverend Robert Tyler)
Omaha Nebraska

"We are not an organization, so to speak; we are a movement..."

From the start, the idea of MAD DADS was to bring together the Black men of the community to deal with the problems facing its youth.  We quickly realized that we had omitted very important parts of our community from MAD DADS and we've since taken the phrase Black fathers out of our literature.  Now we simply say fathers, because we've come to realize the problems facing the Black community are not unique to Black folks.  The lack of positive role models and positive stimuli for our youth was also apparent in the Hispanic community, among Native Americans, and in white America.  All fathers felt the same way.  We needed to come together to ensure the perpetuation of each of our races through social defense of our youths."

MAD DAD's objective is to identify the problems facing the young people in the community and to create solutions...

* This is not the complete essay.  The above is excerpted from an essay featured in Our Common Ground by Bruce Caines.

To read the essays in their entirety, order Our Common Ground online or purchase it through your local bookseller.