Amazing Grace

Converting our community from blind to free

AMAZING GRACE

Converting our community from blind to free

Kendall Qualls

It was a hot and muggy July weekend in New York City when my daughter and other members of our church choir traveled to perform at Carnegie Hall, right in the heart of Manhattan. This special event, “Amazing Grace: From Blind to Free,” was a tribute celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of John Newton (1725 – 1807). It was a unifying moment of reflection and purpose.

For those unfamiliar with Newton, he was an English clergyman and the author of the iconic Christian hymn Amazing Grace, which he penned in 1772:

“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see.”

Before his spiritual awakening, Newton was a seaman who eventually became the captain of a slave ship and an investor in the slave trade. At one point, Newton wound up being enslaved himself to an African princess in what is now Sierra Leone. He was rescued, but faced death in a storm at sea on the journey home. He prayed for deliverance and converted to Christianity when his prayers were answered. This eventually led him to join the clergy and later renounce the slave trade and devote his life to abolition and honoring God. He became a mentor to William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833), a member of Parliament who was instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807, just months before Newton died.

As I sat in the audience for this tribute, the connection between Newton’s story and my own family’s lineage weighed heavily on my heart—with both a profound sense of appreciation and a sobering awareness. My parents grew up under the oppressive conditions of the segregated South. I began my life in poverty, living in Harlem’s public housing projects with my divorced mother. Later, I moved to Oklahoma to live with my father, who resided in a trailer park. And yet despite these unpromising beginnings, I enrolled in college, which I worked full-time to pay for, served as an officer in the U.S. Army, and later earned my MBA from the University of Michigan and capped my career as a Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing in an $850MM business unit. My journey is not just a story of the American Dream—it’s a testament to God’s overflowing grace and abundant blessings.

The day before the concert, while my daughter rehearsed, I took time to visit my childhood neighborhood—just three blocks north of the famed Apollo Theater on 125th Street and 8th Avenue. More than five decades have passed since I lived there, but in many ways, the neighborhood remains unchanged. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Harlem was the epicenter of drugs, violence, and broken families. While the dynamics may have shifted, the struggles persist: fatherless homes, failing schools, crime, addiction, and low expectations still plague the community.

Sadly, my mother, siblings, and their children—my nieces and nephews—have become part of the painful statistics of urban failure. These outcomes are not merely the result of bad luck, but of deeply flawed government policies that promised utopia, enabled dependency, and destroyed accountability. For decades, corrupt politicians, pastors, and community leaders—often paid to toe the Democratic Party line—remained silent as the black family and culture deteriorated.

After 60 years of placing hope in government programs and other false idols, we must confront an uncomfortable truth: the only path forward begins with turning back. Like the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke, we must return to the teachings of God and the core principles of the Christian faith.

Black Americans do not need to wait for permission from politicians or officials to move forward. It begins with acknowledging the reality: we are living lives that dishonor our ancestors, grieve the heart of God, and provide no sustainable future for our children.

So, what comes next?

Here are practical action steps that can begin to heal and transform our communities:

• Support School Choice so tax dollars follow students, empowering families to choose the best educational setting.

• Restore Vocational and Technical Education in public schools, ensuring students graduate with skills to enter the workforce.

• Require the U.S. Citizenship Test as a graduation requirement in middle or high school, reinforcing civic literacy and national identity.

• Incorporate Honest Education on the historical consequences of socialism and communism versus the freedoms and opportunities under capitalism.

• Promote Entrepreneurial Clubs beginning in middle school to spark innovation and economic independence.

• Modify Tax Policies to incentivize marriage and the nuclear family structure.

• Teach and Celebrate Marriage as the foundation of strong families and communities—encouraging marriage before parenthood.

If these steps were embraced nationwide, I am confident that we would witness a renaissance within the black community—an explosion of prosperity, strength, and cultural transformation within a generation. It would be a conversion from blind to free. When this transformation takes places, the entire nation will have reason to rejoice.

“When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we’d first begun.”

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Kendall Qualls is an Army Veteran, retired executive from the healthcare industry and candidate for Governor of Minnesota. He also on the Board of Trustees at Crown College and Board of Advisors for the National Medial of Honor Leadership Center.

Mr. Qualls has authored a book, The Prodigal Project: Hope for American Families. His message has reached millions of people as a speaker and through his articles published in the New York Post, Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, The Federalist, Real Clear Politics, The Christian Post, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. His previous articles in the Journal of FBT include “The Scandal Hidden in Plain Sight,” “Resurrect the Family,” and “A Movement for Revival and Restoration.” He has appeared on the FBT Podcast with host Connie Morgan in an episode titled “Bucking the Narrative.”

Mr. Qualls has been married for 40 years and he has five children.