NAACP Eugene-Springfield to mark 50 years with Freedom Fund dinner Saturday

Fifty years after local leaders established the NAACP Eugene-Springfield Branch, the organization is inviting the community to celebrate five decades of local civil rights work and help fund its next chapter.

The NAACP Eugene-Springfield will hold “Freedom Through the Decades,” its 50th Anniversary Freedom Fund Dinner, on Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Shedd. Organizers say the event will look back at five decades of advocacy and community response while raising money to sustain the branch’s programs in the years ahead.

The branch began in 1976 as a volunteer organization without paid staff, a permanent office or established programs. Over the decades, the NAACP Eugene-Springfield said its leaders, members and volunteers have adapted as civil rights issues in Lane County have changed.