Race discussion Friday in Arlington Heights

Northwest suburban community leaders, clergy and residents will gather at an Arlington Heights church Friday to talk about America's racial divisions - a topic organizers say is especially relevant today.

The Illinois Commission on Diversity and Human Relations is hosting a series of workshops called the "Black and White Divide" that examines the events of Charlottesville, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other issues related to race. Friday's session at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, 1234 N. Arlington Heights Road, is the first of five planned in the Northwest and North suburbs, according to the Rev. Clyde H. Brooks, the commission's chairman.

"It's designed to get people to talk about race, which is a subject many people find difficult to talk about," Brooks said. "It's extremely difficult given the environment we live and work in. We live in a very divisive period in our history."

Brooks, long involved in diversity awareness efforts throughout the suburbs, said the idea of the workshops "is not to preach," but to get people with sometimes differing views in the same room to talk.

"It's designed to get people to express their true feelings," he said.

The event begins with a continental breakfast at 8 a.m. The workshop runs from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.