The NAACP Eugene-Springfield Branch is celebrating 50 years of civil rights work with a Freedom Fund Dinner on Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Shedd. The branch started in 1976 as a volunteer organization without paid staff, a permanent office or established programs. Over five decades, its leaders and volunteers responded as civil rights issues facing Lane County changed.

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.