By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 22, 2009 – The First Lady Michelle Obama sent a special message this weekend telling folks to “celebrate responsible fatherhood and the men who’ve had the courage to step up,” including her father and her husband.

“My father, Frasier Robinson, was the rock of our family. Although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion and our hero,” she wrote.

While the president’s relationship with his father wasn’t the same, it still played a great influence on the type of father the president is today, she observed.  “Barack didn’t have my good fortune — his father left when he was just two years old. But he has always been determined to give our daughters what he never had, and he values being a good father more than any other accomplishment in his life.”

The president has written and spoken openly about his relationship with his father and the importance of fathers taking responsibility: his message this year was the same.

“In many ways, I came to understand the importance of fatherhood through its absence—both in my life and in the lives of others. I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill,” the president said.

“That is why we need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one.”

Mrs. Obama’s message on Sunday introducing her husband’s Father’s Day message continued the call for responsibility.  “So today, on this 100th anniversary of Father’s Day, take a moment to celebrate responsible fatherhood and the men who’ve had the courage to step up, be there for our families, and provide our children with the guidance, love and support they need to fulfill their dreams,” she said.

It was clear the “first parents” want to see more fathers take an active role in the lives of their children.  That message was delivered loud and clear.

But it may be a challenge for some fathers. According to a study by  Families and Living Arrangements: 2006 , there were 12.9 million one-parent families in 2006 — 10.4 million single-mother families and 2.5 million single-father families.  Among African Americans, 63 percent of households are headed by single-parents, almost double their White counterparts.