PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Father’s Day Rally Committee has prioritized supporting and celebrating Black fatherhood in Philadelphia for decades. They hosted their first “rally” in 1990.
“At that rally, we had over 300 men participating. We talked about the issues that were affecting Black males back then,” said co-founder and President Bilal Qayyum.
“We created programs that are geared towards addressing concerns in promoting positive images of Black males.”
Qayyum said those programs are ingrained in a belief that fostering healthy family structures is at the root of uplifting Black communities.
“Our young males ... don't have that nurturing from fathers that they need. A mom can only go so far and raise a young male,” said Qayyum.
“How do we get more involved in the lives of the children, even if they aren't living in their house? We need to get more fathers involved in the lives of the children.”
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One of Father’s Day Rally Committee’s goals is pushing back against the stereotype of Black absentee fathers. Alongside that comes addressing the systemic issues impacting Black men, which is why they have worked for years on the forefront of organizing against gun violence in the city.
“In 1990, there was 500 murders. 385 of them were Black males. And literally, nobody was saying anything about it,” Qayyum explained. The total amount of murder that year was just 11% less than the record-breaking 562 homicides the city saw in 2021.
“So we stood on a corner on Broad Street, and we declared a state of emergency in the city of Philadelphia around violence.”
Qayyum said that they followed their street corner messaging with rallies, visual depictions, and other organizing efforts.
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“I can say without hesitation that 30 years ago,” he added, “we would have wanted to really put the issue about violence in the Black community on the front burner in the city of Philadelphia.”
He says they eventually saw the improvement they were working towards, which is why he has hope that the city can turn it around again.
“The fundamental structure of this society is family. Families come first,” said Qayyum. “When you have a culture, you have strong families and their culture, our culture. Then you see these numbers of violence nowhere near the numbers of violence we've seen in America,”
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For Fathers Day weekend, the organization is hosting an annual ceremony where they honor about a dozen dads who have overcome challenges, and went above and beyond in the call of fatherhood duty.
“To my understanding, we're one of the oldest existing stone resisting fatherhood groups in the country. There's fatherhood groups in the country to have emerged over the years, but we were one of the first in the country promoting fatherhood as a solution to a lot of ills in the African American community.”
This year's group of honorees includes Frontline Dads Executive Director Reuben Jones and Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Joel Dales.
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