Grieving in the Margins: A Webinar on Black Fathers and Gun Violence Loss

When a child is killed by gun violence, the loss reaches far beyond the family. Black homicide survivors often experience complicated grief after the traumatic loss of a loved one, and researchers have begun to document that experience. Existing scholarship has examined homicide survivorship among Black males, Black families, and Black mothers. Research on the experiences of Black fathers who have lost children to homicide remains critically limited.

On November 16 at 2:00 PM ET, a new webinar aims to change that. Grieving in the Margins: When Black Fathers Lose a Child to Gun Violence is co-hosted by the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Black & Brown Collective for Community Solutions to Gun Violence.

What to expect

The webinar centers the voices of Black father homicide survivors through a conversation between leading researchers and a Black father who has lived this loss. Panelists from the Collective’s network include:

Tanya Sharpe, Senior Fellow and Collective member
Nazsa Baker, Collective member
Anthony Shaw, Training & Mentorship Program alumnus
Caleb Cuthbertson, Training & Mentorship Program alumnus

Together, they will explore how Black fathers navigate grief, masculinity, and manhood after their child’s death. It is an urgent and overlooked dimension of community violence and its impacts.

Why this conversation matters

Violence prevention and injury research has made real progress in understanding who is affected by gun violence, but the picture is incomplete when entire groups of survivors go unheard. Fathers are often expected to be strong, silent, and steady in the aftermath of loss. Those expectations can shape whether, how, and where they find support. Understanding their experiences can inform better research, more responsive services, and policies that account for the full reach of community violence.

Who should attend

This session will be valuable for researchers, violence prevention and public health practitioners, social workers and grief counselors, policymakers, and community leaders. It is also for anyone who wants to better understand the people left behind by gun violence.