A fatherhood summit outlines challenges ahead for improving their roles as parents.
Many black men are exemplary fathers, of course.
But too many, experts say, are not. In communities all around America, the number of efforts to improve the parenting of these young men has been on the rise the last few years, after having been nearly nonexistant for decades. 34 percent of those who do don't live with their children, according to an Urban Institute study, one of the relatively few firm statistics around. The figure, the latest available, is for 1997, and hasn't fundamentally changed over the past decade. And, Mr. Lerman says, two-thirds of absent black fathers have no job, so they're not able to provide much money to their children's mother.