Do Black fathers matter in Minnesota?

by Matt Larson

It may come as a surprise to many people that Minnesota custody law and the practices of Family Court are not much different from how enslaved families were treated on the antebellum Southern plantation.

In those dark days enslaved African Americans — many of whom lived in nuclear families with a father, mother and children — were by law treated as property. Each family member belonged to the same owner.

Often families would be separated, usually for economic reasons. Typically, the father was sold and the father and mother, now separated, would be said to have an "abroad marriage."

If the father now lived on a nearby plantation, perhaps several miles away, the slave owner might allow this father occasionally to walk to visit his children. These walks often occurred on Wednesday nights and Saturday evenings. However, the obligation to provide labor for one's owner always took precedence and fathers were often denied contact with their children.

It seems that little has been learned from the past. In the family courts across Minnesota the Wednesday night and Saturday evening walks persist in other forms. Fathers of color suffer disproportionately when confronting child custody law.