Where Every Voice Has a Seat at the Table.
One week. One hour. Every family. Together.
The Black Family Dinner & Dialogue was conceived by James Perkins, former Mayor of Selma, Alabama, and is being launched by ten members of the 2025 Delta Regional Authority Leadership Institute cohort, acting on their own initiative: mayors, educators, executives, and community leaders from across the eight-state Delta region.
This initiative creates an easy, repeatable entry point for strengthening Black families, with no politics, no preaching, and no barrier to participation.
The Delta is not a starting point because it is small. The Delta is the starting point because it is the source: the birthplace of culture, resilience, and movements that have always shaped this nation. What begins here will not stay here.
The initiative carries a specific charge. Read the ampersand as the letter A and the name says it plainly: D, A, D. Black fathers calling their families to the table, on purpose and out loud, is the heart of this effort. Where there is no father at the table, whoever carries that family is invited to lead in exactly the same way.
"Imagine one week each year when Black families across this country sit down together at the table. Not for politics. Not for a program. Just for one hour of food, stories, and each other."James Perkins, former Mayor, City of Selma, Alabama
The ten of us met through the 2025 Delta Regional Authority Leadership Institute Executive Academy, and we started this on our own afterward.
This initiative is independent. It is not a program of the Delta Regional Authority or the Delta Leadership Institute, it does not represent the full 2025 cohort, and it is not endorsed by the organizations any of us work for. We speak only for ourselves.
Learn about the DRA Leadership Institute →Pick any day during the launch week, September 6 to 12, 2026, and gather your family around the table. Any day that works for you is the right day.
At home, at church, at the barbershop, at the community center, or together over video when distance separates you. Wherever family gathers. No preparation required.
A free guide that walks your table through seven moments in about an hour. Download it here.
Share a photo or a few words with #BlackFamilyDAD and invite someone else to gather. No faces required. The movement grows one table at a time.
"What makes you proud to be part of our family?"
"Who are the ancestors whose shoulders we stand on?"
"What dream do we have for the next generation?"
Not to perform. Not to lecture. To call your people to the table, ask the questions, and listen longer than you talk. Send the invitation, say when, read the prompts, and go first when a question is hard. Going first is the whole job.
And if there is no father at your table, this hour belongs to you just the same. Mothers, grandmothers, aunts, older siblings, and guardians have held families together for generations. The invitation is to whoever carries this family.
Get the Conversation KitWe put together a soundtrack. Twenty one songs, an hour and forty seven minutes, from Stevie Wonder and Maze to Jill Scott, Common, and Nas.
Long enough for the hour at the table and the dishes afterward. Put it on low, let it run, and let the conversation sit on top of it.
Open in Apple MusicEvery registration adds a place to the map.
Research consistently shows that families who eat together regularly demonstrate higher academic performance, lower rates of risk behaviors, and stronger emotional bonds across generations.
"The table is set. Come home."
Gathering virtually? Register with the city of whoever is convening. Your table still appears on the map.
Your information is used only to map participation and send the Starter Kit. We do not sell or share your data.
Thank you for registering. Your Conversation Kit is ready right now.
Download the Conversation KitWe will also email it to you, along with a reminder before the gathering week.
Post a photo of the table when you gather. No faces needed if you would rather keep your family offline.
#BlackFamilyDAD Follow @blackfamilydad