Publisher's Statement

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The BLACK CHILD JOURNAL was founded in 1979 to fill a void due to the lack of published articles regarding the problems and issues confronting Black children and their families. In this regard, it can be seen as an archival document that has published articles by leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of sociology, psychology, race relations, arts, culture, economics, and child development. Moreover, the BLACK CHILD JOURNAL continues to be one of the few journals, of any professional discipline, that focuses primarily on the Black child.

Over the years, the BLACK CHILD JOURNAL has been extremely fortunate to have the support of many of our leading ancestral scholars which included: Dr. Asa Hilliard, Dr. Joseph McMillian, Dr. Morris F. X. Jeff Jr., Professor Earl Durham, Dr. Vivian Gordon, Dr. Effie O. Ellis, Dr. Carl Bell, and Dr. Francis Cress Welsing. 

Our mission continues to be the publishing of articles from an African-Centered ideology that addresses the political, social, cultural, educational, and spiritual aspirations and struggles of Black people to achieve, self-determination, self-reliance, and liberation.

In the interest of Black Children,

Useni Eugene Perkins

Founder, and Publisher

 “And How Are the Children?”

A greeting always used by the publishers of the Black Child Journal is “and how are the children?” How did this greeting come into being and what is the relationship to the Black Child Journal?

Among the most fabled and accomplished tribes of Africa were the Masai. No tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome and intelligent than the mighty Masai. It’s surprising then, to learn the traditional greeting passed among the Masai warriors, “Kasserian Ingeri,” acknowledged the high value the Masai placed in the children’s well-being. Even warriors with no children of their own they would always give the traditional answer, “All the children are well.” This meant, of course, that peace and safety prevail; the priorities of protecting the children the young and the powerless are in place; that the Masai people had not forgotten their reason for being, their proper function, and their responsibilities. “All the children are well” means life is good. It means the daily struggle of existence, among the people, including the proper care of the young and defenseless.

The publishers of the Black Child Journal wonder how it might affect the consciousness of our children’s welfare if those at all levels of the system took to greeting each other in the same daily question, “And how are the children?” We wonder if we heard that question and passed it along to each other a dozen times a day, if it began to make a difference in the reality of how children are thought of or cared about.

We wonder if every adult among us, parent and non-parent alike, felt an equal weight for the daily care and protection of all the children in our community, in our cities, in our state, in the country…. We wonder if we could truly say without any hesitation, “The children are well, yes, all the children are well

Since 1979, the purpose of the Black Children Journal has and will continue to be publishing editions of scholarship and practice that contribute to the welfare and well-being of children and striving for all of us to be able to respond, "All the children are well”

Paul Hill, Jr, Co-Publisher

East Cleveland, Ohio