"The unity day is meant to review the issues of Raleigh's diversity what we can do in the next few months to improve the status for everyone here," Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said. "Part of it is to focus on immigration, gang violence, as well as foreclosures."
Those tough issues are what brought Raleigh resident John Bacon out to talk with city leaders.
"Once we know what the issues are and we can come up with solutions," Bacon said.
"It may lead to how we handle housing discrimination, it may also lead to more counseling on foreclosure there certainly are more questions about people being arrested and they're being reported and whether that's proper while immigration reform is still being discussed," Meeker said.
The people who attended the meeting are hoping the topics they discussed will help lead to changes around Raleigh. But they say the Martin Luther King breakfast has even more significant meaning this year, because of the change about to happen in Washington.
"I think there's a lot of excitement and there's realization that the city is changing and the country is changing there's a lot of hopefulness about that," Raleigh Resident Marcia Gumpertz said.
That hopefulness is a message that's inspiring to Bacon and one he's hoping will lead to changes in his own backyard of Raleigh.
"This is a culmination of a lot of people's dreams," he said.
