THE NAACP'S NAME AND STATURE was built out of the past century’s civil rights struggles that remain a very permanent part of the organization’s fabric.

But now, in 2010, the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People finds itself in a new place.

The group’s leaders who experienced the pain and tribulations of the 1950s and 1960s are aging. The Roanoke branch — chartered 77 years ago — is no exception. It will host the Virginia NAACP conference next week at the Sheraton Roanoke Hotel & Conference Center at a time when it is trying to find ways to attract and keep younger members.

"We have to make sure young people get involved. That’s the future leadership right there."

~ Carl Tinsley

"We are fashioning a new spirit of activism, strengthened by the wisdom of our elders and fortified by the vitality of our youth," said national NAACP board Chairwoman Roslyn Brock, during the national convention in August. "We want to be, and we will continue to be, relevant."

Scheduled to appear at the state conference is Benjamin Jealous, who, at 36, became the youngest NAACP national president in the organization’s history last year.

Brock, who is scheduled to visit Roanoke in December, is the organization’s youngest chairwoman.

The Roanoke branch, seen as one of the most active branches in Virginia, created a youth council that will soon turn a year old.

In recent interviews, members of the Roanoke and other regional branches — members young and aging — say they are committed to the organization’s future. But they acknowledge there are challenges.

* * *

During a recent meeting of the Roanoke branch, Peter Wonson called the group a "graying organization."

Around the Loudon Avenue Christian Church fellowship hall sat about 15 members and the group’s leadership, most over the age of 50.

"It’s time to turn it over to the youth," said Wonson, a retired educator who joined the NAACP six years ago.

President Brenda Hale, 64, knows her group — which she calls her "foot soldiers" — is getting older. Between her NAACP and state nursing board responsibilities, she has visits to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem and doctors’ visits for health reasons.

Hale considers herself the face of the Roanoke organization but admits she needs to start looking for her replacement.

"We have to make sure young people get involved," said the Rev. Carl Tinsley, 77, vice president and longtime member of the Roanoke branch. "That’s the future leadership right there."

Hale wouldn’t specify how many members the organization has or the median age — but she said the roster is "aggressively marching toward 400."

But the Roanoke branch and others in the region say they struggle to attract members.

According to the national and state websites, there are NAACP branches in Bedford, Franklin and Montgomery counties, and in Salem, Covington and Lynchburg.

Of the 120 adult branches, college chapters and youth councils in the state, Virginia NAACP Executive Director Salim Khalfani considers eight to be the most active, with the Roanoke branch being one of the more active branches in the state and the most active branch in Southwest Virginia.

"You recruit by the work you do," Khalfani said. The branch has also begun attracting youth using mediums they’re interested in such as music, the Internet and activities at school, he said.

"As a student, going to your parents isn’t always effective. But, now, I have this group that I can relate to."

~ Sanay Wright

"I believe every black person should be a member of the NAACP," Tinsley said. Members of the target age group are involved in other organizations such as fraternities and sororities, but they don’t support the NAACP. "It’s like, you’ve made your own little world over here, and you’re not concerned about those coming up behind you."

* * *

Sanay Wright, 15, is a member of the Roanoke branch’s youth council.

She said she has never been called the N-word and has always been able to go to school where she wants.

As one of a few dozen black students at North Cross School in the Roanoke Valley, she often talks to her grandfather Randolph Howard about what she considers discrimination — such as how she gets in trouble for violating the dress code by wearing exactly what white students are wearing.

As someone who experienced segregation and the civil rights movement, her grandfather doesn’t believe her woes are that bad.

“It is, but in a different way,” she tells him. “It’s different times.”

The Roanoke branch formed its youth council last year, a mandate that trickled down from the national level.

The goal is to get teenagers interested in the organization’s mission and make an impression on them early, said Tony Millner, president of the Martinsville NAACP, which is forming its own youth council.

Roanoke members recruited about 30 student participants. Many are children or grandchildren of adult members.

Javontae Patrick, 15, a well-spoken student at William Fleming High School with the makings of a preacher, is the group’s president.

Hale approached Patrick at a school board meeting last year after he addressed the board about the proposed rezoning of school districts.

Seeing Hale at the meeting and hearing her speech interested Patrick and moved him to join, he said.

"The point is to basically fight and make sure youth have equal rights and to develop a new group of leadership," he said of his group.

Patrick and other youth members saw the organization and other advocates in action Oct. 2 during the "One Nation Working Together" rally in Washington.

“We were able to see a lot of people actively engaged in fighting, and a lot of leaders,” he said. “It was very interesting.”

During its monthly meetings, the Roanoke youth council has focused on organizing itself, learning black history and fundraising so that members can attend meetings and events around the state.

For Wright, the organization provides education and serves as a support group with peers she can talk to about her experiences with discrimination.

"We're what you'd call a graying organization. It's time to turn it over to the youth."

~ Peter Wonson

“As a student, going to your parents isn’t always effective,” she said. “But, now, I have this group that I can relate to.”

As much as they try to spread the word, signing up youth members isn’t easy. Recruiting is difficult and makes questions about the group’s relevance resurface, members said.

“Young people are looking to see something,” Tinsley said. “Some action.”

* * *

So what do the Roanoke branch and others do these days?

Earlier in the organization’s history, the group handled many housing and workplace discrimination complaints. Now, the focus is more on fundraising, said Tinsley, who first joined in the late 1970s.

The branch’s biggest — and most visible — fundraising event is the annual Citizen of the Year banquet, he said.

While the organization’s coffer currently holds about $8,000, keeping a healthy treasury is difficult, but important, Hale said.

The local branch is obligated to send 25 percent of its raised funds and 60 percent, or $18, of each $30 annual membership to the national organization. It must also contribute money for the operation of the state conference.

The group was chartered in Roanoke in 1933. In the 1990s, the group, then headed by Evangeline Jeffrey, was outspoken about minority hiring in the city government. When Jeffrey’s son Martin took over in 1996, he was the youngest president the Roanoke branch has had and he often held news conferences on the organization’s stand on civil rights issues and made it no secret he believed there were racial problems in city government and private industry.

“That’s how people knew we were doing something,” Tinsley said. “It’s important that we address the issues. There are always issues.”

Since Hale took over in 2001, the organization has taken a much more quiet approach to its work.

“I find you can’t work efficiently in the public eye,” Hale said.

According to Hale, the organization has helped file four workplace complaints this year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Richmond. She would not discuss the complaints publicly, but said blacks in Roanoke are still being discriminated against, being called the N-word and finding nooses at their desks.

The organization receives about 120 calls a month to its small office in the Lawson Building in Gainsboro requesting help, Hale said. Of those calls, about seven are valid complaints the NAACP can help with.

“When people call, we’re a resource to them,” she said. “We’re not social services. We’re not the police. We are not attorneys.”

To Hale, the NAACP is a permanent fixture in the Roanoke Valley. Every Saturday morning, through their Our Voices radio program, members discuss branch happenings and issues of concern to local residents.

Voter registration and education is a staple of the organization, Hale said, and the group holds numerous registration drives and forums during important elections.

"It’s hard to get them involved ... Civil rights is probably the last thing on their list of things to do."

~ Leonard Jones

Four times a year, branch leaders meet with the school superintendent to review discipline issues, and Tinsley said he often meets with law enforcement officials to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the black community.

As difficult as it is to attract youth members, attracting adults between 18 and 45 is even more difficult, said Leonard Jones, former president of the Martinsville branch.

"It’s hard to get them involved because they have families and the economy," he said. "Civil rights is probably the last thing on their list of things to do."

For some, like Roanoke resident Melinda Taylor, a lack of information — not time — keeps them from joining.

“I don’t know enough about what they have to offer,” she said. “I’m not sure what they have done in my community. I haven’t heard anything in awhile from or about the NAACP.”

Younger people tend to question the organization’s relevance, said Merrisa Griffin, interim president of the Virginia Tech chapter.

"I think it’s a generational thing," she said. "My generation doesn’t see the necessity, which is a shame because we do really still need the organization."

People think that, because the country elected its first black president, racism no longer exists, but it does, Griffin said.

"It’s not overt racism. That’s died down," she said. "It’s the subliminal stuff. How one group of people have more influence than another group. There still isn’t equal pay. Institutional racism still needs to be addressed."

It doesn’t happen often, but the Virginia Tech chapter will advocate for a student who faces discipline from the board of conduct, Griffin said. Mostly, the group collaborates with the Radford University chapter and hosts forums and workshops about issues on campus.

Griffin said she appreciates those that came before her, but that younger members have a lot to offer.

"The point is to basically fight and make sure youth have equal rights and to develop a new group of leadership."

~ Javontae Patrick

"We need fresh blood, a fresher perspective," she said. "We have technology now. We need to bring in new people to keep the organization alive and to bring the perspective that older members may not have thought of."

* * *

Wright said she is going to do her best to talk her fellow students into joining the fledgling NAACP youth council.

"I hope we can get our name out there and help with racial situations — be a good backbone for the community" she said.

Both Wright and Patrick said they plan to continue their participation after high school.

Hale is hoping the state convention next weekend will showcase the organization’s hard work to potential local members and other branches in the state.

Plans include a luncheon with Jealous and tours of the childhood home of the late Oliver Hill, the revered civil rights attorney. The home is just a few blocks from the Hotel Roanoke.

* * *

The Roanoke branch’s radio show and meetings with educators and law enforcement will continue, as will work on building its first youth council.

When it comes to working with the chapter’s younger members, Hale smiles each time she talks about them. She watched proudly during their recent monthly meeting as her "foot soldiers" recited a chant, affirming their dedication to the organization and its mission.

"What is our mission?" Patrick asked the two dozen youth members.

"We are NAACP soldiers. We must be focused, determined, educated, strong, unafraid to stand up against the masses and be a voice for the few," the group said. "We are confident in justice and we are a catalyst for radical, positive change."