“Come and get educated about the issues in our state that affect African-Americans,” – That’s the invitation from Bonita Gooch, the President of the Kansas Black Leadership Council.

Gooch, as well as leaders from across the state, will take part in the Kansas Black Leadership Council Platform Convention this Saturday, October 1st in Junction City.

“We chose Junction City as a central location in the state, that we thought people could get to fairly easily,” said Gooch. “Leaders from across the state will gather to develop a platform to present to elected officials on the State level ahead of the 2017 legislative session…so what we’re doing is developing a platform of issues of importance to African-Americans that we would hope the Legislature would consider in 2017.”

The topics to be discussed during the convention came directly from African-Americans across the state.

“We conducted a survey from citizens across the state to see what their concerns were, and we will be using the survey results as a guide in developing our platform; some of the issues that were covered under that survey were voter registration, economic development, public safety, education, health – those were the five main areas of consideration,” said Gooch.

Experts in their various fields will present information and educate attendees during the convention; in addition to specific platform ideas from the Black Leadership Council being presented.

The free convention will be held on Saturday, October 1st at the C.L. Hoover Opera House in Junction City. It begins at 10:00 am with registration at 9:30 am. A buffet style ‘working lunch’ will be offered for $10, but it is not mandatory to purchase the lunch in order to attend.

“If nothing else, come and get educated about the issues in our state that affect African-Americans,” said Gooch.