Washington (CNN) The Trump transition began its outreach to the African-American community Wednesday afternoon with an event billed as a "listening session" in Washington, led by former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault.

Manigault, newly tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to work on public engagement in the White House, was joined by other transition officials, including domestic policy chair Ken Blackwell and senior adviser Katrina Pierson. About 100 leaders from a variety of African-American organizations, ranging from the NAACP to fraternities and sororities, were in attendance for the meeting, which lasted more than two hours and was closed to press.

Bishop Harry Jackson, a conservative activist and evangelical leader, called the meeting a "starting point" for members of the community to discuss their priorities and state their agenda, praising the Trump transition's "openness" to listening.

"You have an outsider and an outside team. They're not going to do business as usual, they don't even know how to spell business as usual. For that reason, I'm optimistic," Jackson said, calling the meeting's atmosphere "very civil" and "a very sophisticated meet-and-greet."

Hilary O. Shelton, NAACP Washington Bureau director and senior vice president for advocacy and policy, said the meeting "could be a great start."

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