With a new national administration led by President Barack Obama, the NAACP is being challenged to step up.

However, the leader of the Detroit Branch NAACP, Wendell Anthony, said the organization is looking forward to the next 100 years.

"We've done a great deal on the political frontier," he said. "Voting rights: victory. Housing rights: victory. Fair employment: victory."

Anthony, who heads the largest NAACP chapter in the nation, cited the election of President Obama as a major victory, saying it wouldn't have occurred had the NAACP not been on the job.

"Out of the crucible of the affliction of our country has emerged the likes of Barack Obama," he said, adding that America has turned the corner, that the landscape of the nation is different than it was 25, 10 or even a year ago.

Yvonne White, Michigan State Conference NAACP president, said that over the past century the NAACP built and grew on the collective courage of thousands of people of all races, nationalities and faiths, who united on one premise, that all men, women and children are created equal.

White added that the nation's oldest civil rights organization has changed America's history and has persevered despite violence, intimidation, and hostile government policies.

"NAACP branches, youth councils, high school and college chapters, and prison units all around the state of Michigan and throughout our nation have been working hard to make this moment possible," she said. "From desegregation of the military to Brown v. the Board of Education to a Black commander in chief, courage and hard work have set the stage for victories many of us thought we would never see."

During the last century, the NAACP has led the fight to end lynch mobs, abolish Jim Crow laws, desegregate schools and workplaces, maximize voter participation, and win the fight for every American to compete for higher office, White said.

She noted that Obama's election does not mean the NAACP's work is done. Schools still need to be fixed, as do prison sentence disparities, for example.

Other issues that need to be addressed head on, according to White, include the school affordability crisis.

These struggles have involved everyone, from youth to laborers to professionals to the president, to ordinary men and women.

Ruthie Stevenson, president of the Macomb County Branch NAACP, agreed. She said there still are issues and concerns Blacks have to deal with. There has to be change, as President Obama has said. These include changes in mindsets and in how we deal and work with one another.

"We also have to recognize that these issues and concerns are still there and how we impact them as individuals, as communities and as leadership is going to determine how we move forth as a country," Stevenson said.

She also pointed out that that just as Americans came together to elect Obama, we have to come together to solve the country's ills and issues.

Anthony likewise refuted those who think the NAACP is no longer needed because an African-American is in the White House. He said racism remains an issue to be dealt with as long as there are high levels of African-Americans incarcerated or on death row.

He also said the proposed economic stimulus program will not have any benefit to the nation if it does not stimulate local communities.

"When we look at the banks getting almost $400 billion and we still cannot get loans, we still cannot get financing, what good does that do for our nation if the people do not have access to that?" Anthony asked.

The Detroit Branch NAACP will hold its centennial kick-off annual board meeting Feb. 19-21. Anthony said there will be an NAACP commemorative lithograph available at that event.

"There will also be an NAACP centennial Broadway production entitled 'It Happened in Little Rock' that deals with the Little Rock Nine," he said.

Other events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP will include the 54th annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner this spring and the 100th annual convention in July.

Additional planned festivities include televised specials highlighting the most influential films, music and people from 1909-2009 and the release of a photo book titled "NAACP: Celebrating a Century, 100 Years in Pictures."

For more information about the various centennial events, call (313) 871-2087 or visit www.naacp.org.