A very important part of our community has good reason to celebrate.

For 100 years, the NAACP has promoted equal rights and worked toward the eradication of prejudice in the United States — community by community.

In fact, any organization hoping to make a change for the better could stand a lesson from our Raleigh County NAACP branch. It’s one of the few local organizations that can claim it has faithful members from at least three generations, all working together for a common cause. Our own Raleigh County Branch can also boast it has the largest youth and adult memberships of any NAACP branch in West Virginia. And its grassroots efforts have changed our region for the better.

Branches like it across the United States, working together with Raleigh County’s, have improved our states and our nation — so much so that a black man could run for and be elected president.

Actually, it’s not just one part of our community that has good reason to celebrate this centennial milestone. Our community as a whole — as one — has reason to celebrate. Would we even be able to make that claim if not for the long-term efforts of the NAACP?

For 100 years, the NAACP has been giving back to the community. When it organized, black Americans were considered second-class citizens. In the South, they could not vote. Throughout the nation, they were excluded from employment, an education equal to that of white people, access to credit and the right to purchase homes. They couldn’t even drink from the same water fountains used by white people. Many were tormented, harassed and lynched for no other reason than the color of their skin.

Community by community, the NAACP has worked tirelessly to right those wrongs, and our communities — our entire nation — has benefited largely from that.

The NAACP is still working, and it should. It tirelessly explores issues of concern, such as why employees of local police and fire departments and even jury pools don’t seem to be representative of the area’s black population. And it is constantly educating our youth so they, too, will know of history’s injustices and see that anyone can make a difference.

Now our community’s NAACP is giving back in a different way — by offering a free concert. Not just any free concert, mind you, but a darn good one. The Bob Thompson Unit will perform Saturday at 3 p.m., at Mountain State University’s John W. Eye Center.

Many locals have tuned in to Bob Thompson’s jazzy piano-playing on Mountain Stage, but they may not be aware that Thompson has been a visible presence in the jazz world for more than 30 years.

Thank you, NAACP — not just for a great concert, but for 100 years of making things better.