Seeking gratitude among tragedy this Father's Day

This weekend, many of us will celebrate Father’s Day with lighthearted greeting cards and gifts of ties, tools, golf clubs or hugs. Those of us who are fortunate to have had the guidance and support of a loving father – and those of us to enjoy the blessings of fatherhood ourselves – give thanks.
Little known is that the very first celebration of Father’s Day in the United States – on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, WV – was born of a terrible tragedy. Just about seven months earlier, more than 360 men and boys were killed in the Monongah Mining Disaster. More than 1,000 children were left fatherless. Grace Golden Clayton, who was then mourning the loss of her own father, suggested a church service to honor those lost fathers.
More than a century later we again confront a Father’s Day marred by tragedy. The massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. took the lives of fathers, mothers, grandparents, sisters, brothers and friends.
“If the father’s responsibilities are many, his rewards are also great,” President Lyndon B. Johnson declared in the first official proclamation of Father’s Day. As fathers, one of the primary responsibilities we feel toward our children is to protect them from the dangers of this work. That responsibility weighs especially heavily for Black fathers in the face of racial hostility that seems to rise from all corners.
As we struggle this Father’s Day to understand the overwhelming loss of life and the hatred and fear that inspired it, let us hold close our families, our parents and our children, and treasure the love we share. Hug your fathers and grandfathers, your children and grandchildren, and give thanks.
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