With Black History Month here, Kendall Qualls, president of TakeCharge, discussed the black history “no one wants to talk about” on this week’s Fully Charged podcast.
Qualls recapped the journey of the black family from the late 1960s to current day.
While fatherless homes have become endemic in the black community, 61 percent of black Americans agree children are better off being raised in two-parent families, according to a survey commissioned by TakeCharge.
“The government should incentivize that,” Qualls said.
Only 27 percent of black Americans believe their children are getting an adequate education in the public school system, according to the survey.
In the 1960s, 80 percent of black Americans lived in two-parent families until the LBJ administration’s Great Society launched a program that incentivized women to have children outside of marriage. Aide to Families With Dependent Children, a social welfare program, sent the black community into a downward spiral.
“Marriage rates plunged in the black community. Today, black Americans go to church for funerals more than they do for weddings,” Qualls said.
Qualls said TakeCharge is making marriage a priority.
“When I speak in the black community, everyone agrees. God did not intend for women to raise children alone and to be alone,” he said. “Because our community listened to and followed the wrong leaders, we’ve seen a large percentage of homes in our communities replace husbands and fathers for a revolving door of baby daddies. Fathers love, discipline, and develop their children — baby daddies do not.”
Qualls said making a change in the community does not require money or permission from politicians.
“We need the moral courage to reject government dependency, teach our kids to graduate high school, marry before having children, in that order,” he said.
LISTEN:
