In this powerful address at STARRS “America at a Crossroads” event, Kendall Qualls — U.S. Army veteran, businessman, and co-founder of the Christ-centered nonprofit Take Charge — shares his journey from poverty in Harlem to building a movement aimed at reconnecting Black Americans with their historical roots of faith, family, and self-reliance.
Qualls traces the real history of Black America, highlighting that nearly 80% of Black families remained two-parent households from the Civil War through 1960, despite segregation and hardship. He spotlights overlooked figures like Booker T. Washington and Thomas Sowell, and shares a personal story about Command Sergeant Major George Rogers as a symbol of resilience.
He argues that 1965 welfare policy incentivized single-parent households, triggering a steep decline in Black marriage rates and a surge in fatherless homes — now estimated at 80% nationally and nearly 90% in Minneapolis. Qualls connects this breakdown of the family to broader social and economic disparities seen today.
The speech takes aim at DEI initiatives, academic institutions, and advocacy organizations he says exploit Black Americans to advance a socialist agenda — including efforts to lower academic and professional standards. He includes video clips of Black commentators pushing back against these trends.
Qualls closes with a call to unity, using a football team analogy to argue that all Americans should embrace shared values, history, and tradition rather than division — ending with a rallying cry to live up to the promise of “the land of the free, the home of the brave.”
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STARRS Advisor Kendall Qualls
Kendall Qualls served as a US Army Captain in Field Artillery. He earned three graduate degrees including an MBA from the University of Michigan. He worked his way up the ranks at several Fortune 100 healthcare companies before he became Global Vice President of an $850M business unit. Mr. Qualls champions the principles of meritocracy and supports the notion that free enterprise, and the private sector are the fastest and most equitable way to lift people from poverty to prosperity. He is the President of the nonprofit organization TakeCharge which strives to unite Americans regardless of background toward a shared history and common set of beliefs. See articles on STARRS
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