Chapel Hill resident Tye Hunter wanted to be informed for the upcoming November elections.
Hunter, who attended a forum on economic justice in town elections on Thursday night, said he left feeling like he gained the knowledge he needed.
“I think that Orange County has very significant problems with figuring out how to make it a welcoming place to African Americans,” he said.
“I think the population has been decreasing in Chapel Hill, and I would hope we would think about what we could do to change that.”
Thursday’s forum was the second of four events hosted by the Community Empowerment Fund, a local organization, as part of its “Politics, Race and the November Election” series of discussions.
“We can begin to wrap our heads around the issues as we talk about them,” said Chapel Hill resident TK Khan, who said he has been attending the forum series to understand the role race plays in the elections.
Allison De Marco, an investigator for the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, organized the forums after attending similar sessions in Chapel Hill hosted by a group from Greensboro.
The forum is the second event to come out of an alliance of caucuses formed to promote discussions about issues related to race in politics and the community.
Robert Dowling, a panelist at the event, talked about issues of gentrification in the Northside area of Chapel Hill.
