Standing on Whalley Avenue, members of the Brotherhood Leadership Summit called on fathers to take responsibility for their families. They aim to have 20,000 more men standing with them in August.
Equipped with a microphone and two huge loudspeakers, Minister Donald Morris stood in front of Doussou African Hair Braiding and preached on Monday evening. He spoke out against guns and violence and drug abuse, and above all, absentee fathers.
It was the first of a series of similar events leading up to the annual New Haven Gospel Fest, which this year carries the theme of fatherhood. The annual August music festival on Goffe Street is organized by the Brotherhood Leadership Summit, a black men’s group associated with the Christian Community Commission. The Brotherhood aims to gather 20,000 men at Gospel Fest weekend, on Aug. 1, to solidify the message of fatherly responsibility.
In addition to a statewide recruiting drive to gather their 20,000 men, the Brotherhood is holding four more sidewalk events throughout New Haven in June, plus a march on June 22. The effort, called the “Fatherhood We Care Tour,” targets hot spots for violence in the city, including Newhallville and the Hill. The Brotherhood coordinated a similar effort in 2007.
Where there is violence in the city, “we want to go right in that area,” said Minister John Lewis (at left in photo), outreach director for the Brotherhood.
Absentee fathers are directly related to rising violence and crime, Lewis explained. “Let’s look at New Haven as a house,” he said. “The fathers aren’t in the house, so the children are running wild.”
“The number one message we have is to stand up and take back the community,” Lewis said.
That message will be delivered in force on Aug. 1 at Gospel Fest in Goffe Street Park, when 20,000 men from all over the state will gather, said Christopher Holland (at right in photo), the president of the Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood has visited churches throughout Connecticut to recruit men to come to Gospel Fest’s Fatherhood Weekend, Holland said. “We’ve been to every city and town in this state,” he said. “There’s been an overwhelming response.”
Absenteeism by fathers is “leading to so many other problems,” Holland said. He mentioned dropout rates, incarceration.
Tracey Suggs, the mother of a 13-year-old shooting victim, stood with the Brotherhood on Monday evening. She was there to “show that mothers can come out and stand up too,” she said.
“I’m a single parent myself,” Suggs said. Fathers are crucial in the development of young men, she said. “I can’t teach him how to be a man. I can show him what we expect of a man… but it takes a man to instill it.”
The sidewalk sermon ended with prayers and pizza. Passersby and local teenagers joined hands as Minister Morris led the group in prayer. His promise of free pizza for those who pray quickly swelled the circle.
“We normally feed the community at our events,” President Holland said, as people lined up for Domino’s pizza. “A lot of these kids won’t eat a meal tonight. Now they’ve got a meal to eat.”