May 5, 2026 By ZHATEYA JONES A film premiering May 23 was inspired by a sense that men – particularly Black men – are increasingly absent from civic spaces. Are men are no longer showing up in civic life the way previous generations once did? Hosted by a panel of leaders including filmmaker ... Continue Reading →
By ZHATEYA JONES In a room filled with testimony, urgency and truth, one message echoed louder than the rest: Listen to your body – and fight to be heard. At a recent community forum led by Rev. Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP, residents gathered to confront a disease ... Continue Reading →
Writing Truth, Fighting for Community, and Turning Life into Legacy
March 24, 2026 By ZHATEYA JONES In a world where many wait for permission to speak, Dr. Blanche Penn has built a life – and a literary catalog – on doing the opposite. Author, community advocate, and civic leader, Penn has spent decades transforming lived experience into testimony, using her ... Continue Reading →
2 advocates review the alarming statistics
March 10, 2026 By ZHATEYA JONES The Forum's first session in a series prepared for Women's History Month posed this question: Why are Black women still dying in childbirth in the United States? Presenter was Danette McLaurin Glass, Managing Principal and Senior Strategist of First TEAM ... Continue Reading →
More about CMS principal Joseph C. Belton
Feb. 12, 2026 By Queen Norwood Thompson The Feb. 10 session was excellent. I applaud the group's discussion on education and that of Mrs. Belton as a counselor at West Charlotte High School. David Belton's father, Mr. Joseph C. Belton, was equally a powerhouse in Charlotte. I and my husband ... Continue Reading →
Background on Dillon’s Rule
Dec. 2, 2025 Nothing will end this Dillon's Rule controversy, but here is some background, from Coates' Canons NC Local Government Law "The 'rule' refers to a standard for judicial interpretation – a guide for judges suggesting that municipal powers should be narrowly construed. It was developed ... Continue Reading →
Documents about Lab Fund connection
Nov. 18, 2025 Here are some of the documents behind today's announcement of a fund to support livestream and other digital support for the Forum. July 28: An e-mail outlining the interest of the NC Local News Lab Fund in offering financial support of the Forum's work. July 28: Steve Johnston's ... Continue Reading →
How can voter participation be encouraged?
Oct. 22, 2025 By Steve Johnston Perhaps one of the more interesting threads running through the District 3 conversation had to do with this: How do elected officials encourage resident input into city policymaking? And what encourages disparate, far-flung residential neighborhoods to ... Continue Reading →
The legacy of a 1975 voter revolt
Oct. 8, 2025 The city was smaller. Precincts were fewer. But the 1975 rejection of an airport bond referendum is remembered by some older Black voters as a victory for justice over get-along. Mayor John Belk had proposed a major airport terminal expansion. City Council included 6 white members ... Continue Reading →
Unaddressed questions
Oct. 7, 2025 Three questions or comments were sent in to the Forum during the transit tax discussion by online viewers. They were not read aloud or discussed. BPC —You quoted that statistics show that roughly 80% of transit ridership is Black, which has often been used as a reason we ... Continue Reading →