ATLANTA - Joseph Kellogg hasn't seen his father since he was 8 years old. When he was 15, he was shot. He has spent 20 of his 24 years living in housing projects. On Thursday night, the young Atlantan got a standing ovation on a stage next to comedian and TV star Bill Cosby.

"I could be out robbing, stealing and taking drugs because I didn't have a father," said Kellogg, who manages three convenience stores in Atlanta. "I could be out drinking and getting drunk because my mother was a drug addict. But it would be nobody's fault but mine."

Kellogg is the model Cosby wants young African-Americans to follow.

Dressed in a maroon University of Massachusetts sweatshirt, blue sweatpants and sandals, Cosby spoke bluntly about the way some single mothers bring men into their homes who are "worth nothing."

The child "hears you having sex in the room, he hears you arguing, he hears you cursing," Cosby said. "And then four days later, you bring another man into the house."

The audience of 2,500 packed into the Frederick Douglass High School gym gasped.

"People say, 'You're very blunt,'" Cosby said. "You're damn right."

He told single fathers in the audience that being unemployed is no excuse for not being involved in their children's lives. And neither is having an acrimonious relationship with the children's mother.

If a mother tells a child that the father wants nothing to do with him or her, then it is the father's responsibility to say, "No, that's not true. I'm not in your life, but I'm in my child's life," Cosby said.

The world-renowned entertainer, who has a doctorate in education, has been touring the United States and talking loudly about the plight of black America. On Thursday in Atlanta, he may have been preaching to the choir. Many in the predominantly black audience appeared to be middle class.

"Unfortunately, the people who need to hear it aren't here," said Atlanta police Detective Rufus Huffman.

Ron Petty, a 27-year-old Atlanta clothing entrepreneur, disagreed with Cosby's message.

"Its not as simple as 'get over it,'" Petty said. "We need Bill Cosby, instead of putting all this money behind colleges, to open up a rehabilitation center for when these guys come out of jail."

James Donald, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections and one of the evening's speakers, said that of the 54,000 men imprisoned in Georgia, 30,000 are black. "And they average about 2.3 children," he said. "That is over 60,000 children going to bed tonight without their fathers."

Cosby said problems in such homes manifest themselves early, as children start to realize the emotional burden of dysfunctional families.

He said he has talked to many successful young people whose faces light up when asked about their mothers. Then they cast their eyes down when asked about their fathers.

Brittany Powell, a 19-year-old Spelman College student who comes from a single-parent household, said she was inspired by Cosby's speech. "The fact that I don't have my family there, it's no longer an excuse," she said. "My goal and my duty, being an alum (of Douglass High), coming from the same background, is to show them they can persevere, too. He showed us the way. Now it's time to show others the way, too."

Parents in the audience listened and nodded at Cosby's words. In the vast Douglass gymnasium, Cosby told a story about meeting eager elementary school children he likened to trees ready to grow. When he visited a middle school, the energy of the children "was cut in half. These trees started to droop." By the time he got to the high school, "they were slouching and sleepy."

"I want you mothers and fathers in here for these PTA meetings," Cosby exhorted the crowd, to rousing applause. "The same ones that show up for the football games and basketball games, musicals and African dance recitals, I want you there for algebra."

Fourth-year Morehouse medical school student Aysha Khouey said Cosby's message left her feeling she must become involved in helping to reverse the trend toward failure in the black community.

"I know I need to do something, I know I need to be involved. I just haven't quite figured out how to do that yet," she said afterward. "I want to go into pediatrics because of everything that Bill Cosby said, to help parents, to guide parents, to teach what parenting is about and to let kids know that there is someone who cares."