CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Black organization leaders in Corpus Christi say the representation for African Americans in the city is minimal.
"We don't have any representation as far as the city council is considered,” said Simone Sanders, board member of the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education chapter in Corpus Christi.
“We don't have any representation at the county level. We don't have any representation period. Right now, we have representation at the CCISD level and we also have an elected official that is over the Democratic party."
The TABPHE chapter in Corpus Christi is taking part in local election candidate forums being held this year and hosted by different African American groups.
Albert Walker is helping organize these forums. He said he hopes this event helps spotlight the lack of representation and inspire change.
"We want to see if those candidates will address those issues," Walker said. "Talk about some plans to make those things happen and different diversity initiatives."
TABPHE is hosting the CCISD school board forum and Sanders said without proper representation in education, decision making could exclude Black students.
"A lot of times students of color are left out of these topics and left out of many discussions and there by left out of and there by left out of anything else that gets produced in the future, so if out organizations don't step up and make sure that we have a voice or that we have a collective voice we are going to find ourselves consistently left out of the conversation," said Sanders.
The next forum held will be for the District Attorney's race hosted by the Corpus Christi African American Voices organization.