But among tales about attacks from the left and the challenges African-Americans as a whole face as a result of President Obama’s policies, the one topic that elicited the most discussion and agreement was Republicans failure to reach out to the black community.

Here are six ways — per the panelists’ discussions — the GOP can better connect with African-Americans:

1. Reach out to churches

“That’s the X-factor for the black community,” said Will Addison of the American Family Association. “It’s the church. If you look at the conservative principles, we have social, we have government. You have to get back to the church. I feel like it goes back to us, being people, being Christians. And black people, you know whether they heard it from their grandmother or their mom, they know something about church. They know something about God.”

And several other panelists echoed Addison’s sentiment.

“The interesting part is I didn’t learn my conservative values from any elected official,” said T.W Shannon, speaker of the Oklahoma state House of Representatives. “I learned them from my predominantly African-American church in Lawton, Okla., the Bethlehem Baptist Church.”

2. Halt immigration reform

With the unemployment rate for African-Americans at  13.5 percent — almost an increase of a full-percentage point since 2009 — immigration reform poses a significant threat to African-Americans, said Charles Butler, a member of Project 21.

“The issue here that we haven’t focused on is illegal immigration and immigration reform,” Butler said. “We have people who are talking about legalizing 12 million people and bringing another 33 million guest workers who are going to impact lower socioeconomic jobs in this country. And CBO has already said that its going to be a very detrimental impact on black Americans. …I’m telling you, those are the issues we need to focus on.”

3. Improve the education system

“One of the primary reasons that we have such high unemployment rate in the black community is because these young people are not getting a quality education,” said Star Parker, president of Cure. “And what we see from the left, the president on down, the NAACP, is fights against any kind of school choice movement in this country. Where people are begging, parents are begging to be able to send their children to Christian and Catholic schools.”

4. Eliminate the Congressional Black Caucus

“We’re not holding the Congressional Black Caucus accountable,” said Timothy Johnson of the Frederick Douglass Foundation. “They have been skating by for years as it relates down to their so-called representation of the black community and it’s time for them to leave office. As a matter of fact, as far as I’m concerned, we need to demolish the CBC in and of itself. … We need to recognize that they do a disservice to us.”

5. Black Republicans need to reach out to communities themselves

“I’m going to start with myself. And the conservatives in this room, which makes me so proud to be here, is, if we’re going to use some biblical examples, we’re like the Joshua and Caleb that went to go see the promise land,” said Charles Lollar, chairman of New Day Maryland PAC. “Now we’re trying to come back and tell everyone ‘listen it’s okay. We can inhabit the giants, we can take the land.’ … I don’t want the Republican Party to go to my family, I can go to myself. And if we can do that, we can convert more people.”

6. Get away from identity politics

“The left puts people in boxes,” said Stacy Washington, a columnist with Townhall.com. “I refuse to be placed in their box, I’ve never been in their box. I’ve never been to Africa and I’m black. …  I refuse to allow someone who is a charlatan like Jesse Jackson to define who I am.”