Obama speaks about fatherless childhood at stop in Baltimore

President Barack Obama has spoken of the importance of fathers to their sons on Friday after a young man he met at a community center in Baltimore mentioned wanting to provide for his sons.

Obama, at the Center for Urban Families, which serves fathers and their families, said that one of the biggest challenges he faced growing up was growing without a father.

According to Politico, a man named Marcus Dixon had told him about the center's key role in helping him learn to provide for his family after being released from jail.

Obama added that some of the stuff that you're learning now you're able to transmit to your sons, giving them a sense of what it means to work hard; what it means to think long term and not just short term; thinking about how they're going to go to school.

Obama has made similar comments before, generally when speaking to young African-American men, as he did at a Chicago high school in February, the report added.