Welcome!
Announcements
Queen Thompson sent in a link to a March 3 UNCC video honoring Dr. Joyce Waddell on receiving a UNCC Distinguished Alumni Award.
Bishop George Battle Jr., longtime head of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church and former member and chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, died March 9. Obituary here.
Tom Hanchett left an announcement that his book titled “Affordable Housing in Charlotte: What One City’s History Tells Us about America’s Pressing Problem” will be published in May.
Upcoming Events
March 18: Tchernavia Montgomery, Executive Director of CARE RING, 6-7 p.m., West Boulevard Library, 2157 West Blvd. Register here. Flier here. More info here.
March 19: UNCC Community Engagement Showcase, 3-5:30 p.m., UNCC Charlotte Center City, 320 E. 9th St. highlighting “community-engaged faculty research from the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences.”
March 19: State of the County address by Board Chair Mark Jerrell, 10 a.m., Meeting Chamber, Government Center.
March 24: Dr. Shante’ Williams, General Director of Opera Carolina, 6-7 p.m., West Boulevard Library, 2157 West Blvd. Register here. Flier here. More info here.
April 8: Cunningham Stringband, Golden Angels choir and Clouds of Heaven shout band, 7:30 p.m.. free, masks required,United House of Prayer for All People, 2321 Beatties Ford Rd. Cafeteria opens at 6 to purchase soul food dinner.
April 26: BCDI Teacher Leadership Forum, 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., $25-$50, West Charlotte High School.
June 2-7: Diamond Tours trip with Dr. Blanche Penn and Petronila Clark to Biloxi & New Orleans, $770.
July 21-23: Diamond Tours trip with Dr. Blanche Penn and Petronila Clark to Charleston, $450.
July 26: Expungement Clinic, 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 3351 Griffith St. Register by May 31.
Aug. 25-28: Diamond Tours trip with Dr. Blanche Penn and Petronila Clark to Myrtle Beach, $630.
Sept. 12: Urban League Awards Gala, 6-10 p.m., Black Tie, The Westin.
Sept. 16-18: Diamond Tours trip with Dr. Blanche Penn and Petronila Clark to Pigeon Forge and Smoky Mountains Show Trip., $469.
Oct. 10-13: Diamond Tours trip with Dr. Blanche Penn and Petronila Clark to Washington, D.C., $599.
Oct. 25: Expungement Clinic, 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 3351 Griffith St. Register by Aug. 30.
Dec. 8-12: Diamond Tours trip with Dr. Blanche Penn and Petronila Clark to Lancaster Show Trip & the Dutch Country, $775.
Candidates, Elected Officials, Etc.
Alma Adams 2-10 2-11 2-19 2-20 2-21 2-24 2-25 2-27 3-5 3-7 3-11 3-11 3-14 3-14
Sherrell Dorsey 3-4
Joyce Waddell 2-10 2-17 2-18 2-25 3-3 3-12 3-12
Governments, Nonprofits, etc.
Carolina Youth Coalition 2-26
CharMeck Chronicle 3-1
City Startup Labs 2-28
Council for Children’s Rights 2-22
Goodwill Industries 2-18 3-10 3-13
Mecklenburg Board Bulletin 2-10 2-24 3-10
NC Administrative Office of the Courts 2-17 2-19 2-20 2-25 3-5
NC Community Action Association 2-27 3-3 3-5 3-10
Obama Foundation 2-10 2-26 3-8 3-12
Sol Nation 2-17
Organizations’ Event Calendars
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Alpha Lambda Omega Chapter
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Charlotte Alumnae Chapter
Women’s Business Center of Charlotte
U.S. Congress office hours
12th District – Alma Adams
Main office: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m, 10815 David Taylor Dr, Suite 100
1st & 3rd Tuesdays, 9 a.m.-noon, North Meck Regional Library
1st & 3rd Wednesdays, 9 a.m.-noon, Cabarrus County Govt. Center
2nd & 4th Thursdays, 1-4 p.m., North Meck Regional Library
14th District – Tim Moore
8th District – Mark Harris
View theAnnouncements Archive
Education & Health
CMS Chief of Staff Ingrid Medlock, left, and associates offered successes and challenges facing the school district, and sought help from parents, groups and businesses to mentor children and help them become high-achieving readers.
Fannie Watermann, left, and Dorothy Counts Scoggins discussed the searing realities of being among the first teens to desegregate Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in the late 1950s.
MT Turner, CEO and chief librarian of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library system, laid out the vision of easing access to services, whether by inviting all in or going out to the public throughout Mecklenburg.
Barack Obama, in this online video, marked the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, noting the millions of lives touched by it and the power of citizen support that led to its passage.
Jennifer Fuentes pinch-hit for CEO Debra Weeks in a forum devoted to explaining how C.W. Williams Community Health Center, initiated in 1981, has changed, focusing on new buidlings and a wider range of medical and dental services.
Keisha Lewis, left, brought years of health care experience to bear on her creation this year of a occupational health and Type 2 Diabetes consultancy.
Jared Keaton returned to the Forum to give an update on how the old Bethlehem Center, now Alliance Center for Education, is expanding to serve more children.
Community and nonprofit groups are working to place new grocery outlets in Charlotte’s “food deserts.”
Six presenters outlined services available for aging adults and those with mental health challenges.
Goodwill Industries looks back on 2023 with data, stories about participants trained or supported, and sets an ambitious goal for 2024.
UNCC is holding one-week programs in summer 2024 for area teens in a variety of STEM-related subjects.
Kieth Cockrell, left, and Malcomb Coley explored issues that executives on loan to CMS are tackling.
As a teen, Robin Price first observed a woman’s anxiety during childbirth when trying to support a good friend. Today, her business as a doula has taught her what women need to stay focused on health, and joyful in giving birth.
There’s help for those lost in the labyrinth called Health Insurance Coverage. Deadlines in both Medicare and Obamacare programs are looming.
Varnell Bien-Aime discusses his work with Reggie Singleton at The Males Place, a 30-year project to help guide teenaged boys toward a healthy and responsible adulthood.
A panel of school bond advocates and CMS’s top facilities planner fielded questions about the bond campaign, its potential to hasten gentrification, and whether there is buy-in from all governmental and other units to reverse the economic decline of westside neighborhoods.
CMS Superintendent Dr. Crystal L. Hill began with the family that shaped her, made a case that students are making up for lost time during the pandemic, and expressed a commitment to be the communicator-in-chief with the school district’s multiple constituencies that she will serve.
Sharon Geter, left, and Elizabeth Colen shared details of barriers they have faced in reaching their business objectives.
Longtime CMS observer Bolyn McClung offers state data illustrating persistent achievement gaps between schools.
Dr. Alyssa M. Burns and her Accellacare team explained clinical drug trials and their key role in assessing drugs’ usefulness and value in improving quality of life.
Community & Housing
Kim Graham, left, describes a journey that began as a nanny and led to her leadership of the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association.
Abdullah Salim, left, the son of Charlotte dentist and civil rights activist Dr. Reginald Hawkins, joined his pediatrician wife Dr. Lenora Hawkins and Darnell Ivory in a narrative about families named Martin, Richardson, Ivory and Hawkins that helped shape the city.
Lisa Givens Pugh, left, and five other leaders or members of smaller area faith communities reflect on what attracted them to their faith home, and its life in the community as it reflects Charlotte’s history since the 1860s.
Three of the lawyers hired into a preeminent civil rights law gathered to honor their boss, the late Julius Chambers, and add to the record of his work on behalf of the rights of all people.
Three JCSU staffers explained a statewide effort to reimagine how surveys of the public are designed.
Joi Mayo, Trees Charlotte community engagement manager, joined urban forest educator Heather Brent and executive director Allison Rhodes in a discussion of the 2022 tree canopy study and what it might take to reach the city’s goal of boosting to 50% the percentage of the city that’s under that cooling canopy.
Mayor Pro Tem Danté Anderson, left, and Action NC’s Robert Dawkins explore how the money raised by the Nov. 5 housing bond question will, and will not, address the city’s housing shortages.
Applesauce Group leader Winston Robinson presented details on Saturday’s “A Vibe Called Fresh” at West Complex on Beatties Ford Road.
Nicholas V. Wharton, President and CEO of Charlotte Area Fund, marked the antipoverty agency’s 60th anniversary with comments on the work still ahead.
Valaida Fullwood led a panel discussion of the work of New Generation of African American Philanthropists.
Presenters offered ways groups are cutting property taxes for low-income homeowners and helping them arrange for critical home repairs.
Sam Smith Jr. explained the work of GreenLight Fund by hosting leaders of national groups bringing “evidence-based social innovations” to bear on the community’s unmet needs.
Jamses Ivy outlined United Way grant deadlines, then featured three women whose groups are putting such support to community use.
Winston Robinson recounted Applesauce Group’s events designed to open doors to residents in underserved neighborhoods.
More than 400 Mecklenburg children are in foster care. Three people whose organizations help these children described complex issues the children face, the need for foster parents, and the way many of the children face homelessness on their 18th birthday.
Greg Jackson tells of his journey from Bronx drug dealer to fund-raiser and leader of what he calls a “revolution” to rebuild Black community viability in Charlotte for the homeless families finding at his Heal Charlotte the wraparound services they need.
Bertha Maxwell-Roddey, co-founder of the Afro American Cultural and Service Center, later renamed in honor of Harvey Gantt, has died.
Residents have been invited to take part in telling the 250-year history of Mecklenburg County.
Growing Business
Four of the key players in plans to redevelop part of the Eastland Mall site for soccer and other sports explained their collaboration and their focus on stimulating economic activity on the east side.
Ken Koontz, himself a former owner, wrote that the current California owner will sell the shell of the Excelsior Club without redeveloping the Beatties Ford Road site.
Manuel Campbell led a discussion of the work of Aspire Community Capital as it serves small business owners who are learning how to run their business.
Nikita Allen shared some of her experiences coaching owners of small businesses as they grow their businesses and stay focused on what they find most rewarding.
Gerald Johnson led a discussion of how the small family business behind The Charlotte Post has worked on a succession plan to create generational wealth.
Five who weathered the bad times, and good, in the decades of opening up a white male-dominated banking culture.
Carol Lilly, left, and Stephane Joyner have successfully led many a struggling minority business owner through the mine fields awaiting applicants for construction contracts.
Daks McClettie Sr. learned the insurance agency trade under the tutelage of two longtime Charlotte agency owners. Retired agent Bob White joined the conversation.
An updated version of the MyFutureNC report has a grim warning about North Carolina’s future.
Carrie Cook discussed some of the work of the Federal Reserve toward financing businesses, consumer protection and community development.
Sherrell Dorsey, once based in Charlotte, has announced the unplugging of “The Plug,” an online chronicler of Blacks in the tech industry.
Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority CFO Anthony Shelborne explains the group’s outreach to area companies for help with venue hospitality.
Traletta Banks, left, was one of four entrepreneurial minds in different economic sectors explaining their challenges, and seeing opportunities to work together.
Frances Hall recounts her struggle to bring training in the construction trades to young people who turn their new skills into gainful employment.
Cheryse Terry shared the story of how life events led her to the successful creation of a new Black-owned coffee shop and gathering place on Beatties Ford Road.
An overview of the Growing Business category.
Book review by Daniel Souleles , left, may offer a routine-stopping opportunity to think about how systems can hurt people.
John McDonald created at LaSalle and Beatties Ford a community meeting spot. The building’s new owner is seeking historic status for the site.
Government & Politics
Staff from the city-county Community Relations Committee laid out how allegations of fair housing violations are investigated and mediated.
Linda Lockhart, now retired, blazed a trail through the fires of harassment and injustice for those who have followed her at the Charlotte Fire Department.
U.S. Rep. Alma Adams urged individual and collective action to blunt President Trump’s attacks on American institutions.
Appointed U.S. Attorneys generally resign with a change in the White House. Dena J. King, left, first person of color serving at U.S. Attorney in the NC Western District, has done so, and explains her work, her preparation, and how she approaches her future.
Harvey Gantt, Anthony Foxx, Patrick Cannon and Vi Lyles – all four of Charlotte’s Black mayors – gathered in an unusual discussion about being mayor, serving the people, and making progress on meeting the city’s needs.
Adrian Cox, left, and Bert Lynn shared material on how the public can weigh in on county budget priorities and on future spending for the county parks and recreation system, including greenways.
Journalist Ken Koontz sought to tell the story of how a group could issue report cards on elected officials. Participants’ questions led him to conclude that necessary first step is to get election precincts organized.
Ken Koontz, left, will lead a Forum Panel Nov. 19 on his proposal to create a structure for holding local officeholders rersponsible for their promises between elections.
Monifa D. Drayton, CEO of Drayton Leadership Group, recounted lessons learned in speaking one-on-one with registered voters in low-income minority communities during the recent election.
Alysia Osborne explained the city’s 2040 plan with a focus on its long-range elements that will help define tomorrow’s Charlotte.
City Council District 2 member Malcolm Graham commented on his prime commitments, and answered questions on everything from trash in streets to big-league sports to tumultuous times in America.
Greg Johnson, left, led a presentation about efforts to catalog what residents think the city should do to improve mobility within Charlotte.
City Council member James Mitchell and seven friends in local government and politics explore their shared understanding of what helps nurture community-focused leaders.
Three retired Mecklenburg judges offer insights from their years as traiblazing African-Amercan judges in District and Superior Courts.
The U.S. Justice Department released a report on Minneapolis conditions that contributed to the 2020 murder of George Floyd, and its recommendations for reform.
Caleb Theodros was among the speakers as the Forum hosted a community discussion of how Rep. Tricia Cotham’s announced switch to the GOP may alter the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches.
Kristie Puckett-Williams told her story, and the story of hundreds of women incarcerated in North Carolina, who do not receive appropriate care when pregnant.
Faith Triggs, a volunteer with the Vote Yes for City Bonds Committee, led off a discussion of what’s in the Nov. 8 city bond referendum package.
Congresswoman Alma Adams gave an update on work that Congress has been doing, and her efforts to bring factions together to serve the American people.
Community Relations held a virtual session on its Americans With Disabilities Act Transition Plan.
Government & Politics
Candidates & Ballots
Results of the 2024 elections in North Carolina precincts, from Donald Trump (left) to Kamala Harris to the Mecklenburg soil & water board.
Democrats Brandon Lofton, left, and Nicole Sidman outlined their efforts to keep or win seats in the GOP-dominated N.C. House.
Two Democrats, Nasif Majeed, left, and Beth Helfrich answered questions on how to take the needs of their districts to a GOP-dominated General Assembly.
Democrats Woodson Bradley, left, and Kate Compton Barr are bucking powerful trends in their bids for election to two N.C. Senate districts with Mecklenburg voters.
County Commissioner candidates Angela White Edwards, Laura Meier and Susan Rodriguez-McDowell answered questions.
A panel of representatives from nonpartisan and partisan groups shared observations on why raising Mecklenburg’s Election-Day turnout is so difficult.
Tiffany Capers and Robert Dawkins guided an Open Forum discussion on approaches that lead more registered voters to the polls.
Felicia Thompkins faces incumbent George Dunlap and Charles Osborne faces incumbent Vilma Leake in Democratic primaries March 5.
All five Democratic candidates for three at-large County Commissioner seats spoke about Mecklenburg’s challenges amid rapid growth and multiple human services crises.
Forum heard from four of the six candidates in March 5 primaries for House Districts 98 and 106, and Senate District 42.
Dr. Yolanda Holmes and Nicole Sidman made their case for the chance to face Tricia Cotham in redrawn NC House District 105.
Democratic candidates in the March 5 NC Senate 41 primary focused on working across the aisle in a Republican-dominated legislature.
Candidates facing primary challenges on the March 5 Super Tuesday ballot are listed here.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson vowed that, if elected as the next N.C. Attorney General, he would refocus N.C. law enforcement energies on fentanyl, the poison that is killing North Carolinians and Americans nationwide.
Democrat Tiawana Brown answers questions about the District 3 City Council race on Nov. 7.
The last group of candidates on the Nov. 7 ballot running for three CMS school board seats presented today.
Five of the 14 candidates on the Nov. 7 ballot for three at-large seats on the CMS Board of Education addressed the Forum.
Forum & Commentary
Harold C. Dixon, retired longtime CMS employee and organist at Sarah Stevenson’s funeral, has died.
Charlotte’s GOV Channel will air a video of the Forum’s Feb. 4 conversation with four former and current Black Mayors during the rest of February.
Forum facilitators took to the presenters’ table to explain their roles in sustaiining the decades-old networking and public policy discussion forum.
It was the annual day set aside for games, for seeing old friends once again: It was the Christmas Party 2024.
Charlotte Post Publisher Gerald Johnson issues a reminder of the iinescapable liink between freedom and viibrant journalism.
Dr. Thomas Moore sat down at the piano and created a calming presence in the middle of an ear-splitting fire alarm test.
The NC Black Alliance plans to have Carolinas community activists at the Forum April 30 as part of a training on ways to inform their hometowns about community issues and organize for change.
Gene Carney, husband of longtime Forum participant and N.C. House member Becky Carney, has died.
These seasonal pictures were published in the “Recently at the Forum” space on the front of this website during the Forum’s winter holiday.
An Open Forum focused on the concerns that people brought with them: Holding leaders accountable for doinig what they promised; school bonds; rendering restorative justice; reaching youth; bolstering civic knowledge.
Sarah Stevenson, co-founder of the Forum, has died. More information from her funeral and a Celebration of LIfe.
Regulars at the Forum, joined by a large Facebook audience, reviewed how a decades-old mainstay of community building can serve younger generations, as well as involve them.
The Forum’s website marked Black History Month 2023 with this collection honoring local African Americans who have helped shape that history.