Nearly 40 years after the death of the most famous civil-rights figure, Martin Luther King Jr., local black organizations are stronger than ever and their presence in the community is growing.

Black History Month puts an emphasis on black organizations, but they stay busy all year, local leaders say.

Josh Humphries/The Daily Reflector (ENLARGE)

Calvin Henderson stands at his base of operations outside the Pitt County NAACP office on Fifth Street.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Black Student Union at East Carolina University are seeing their numbers grow.

"I see great things in the future of the NAACP," said Pitt County Chapter President Calvin Henderson. "I think people are ready for a change, and they know to have a change they have to get involved."

Henderson said the chapter is growing by 10-15 members a month. There are more than 200 members in Pitt County.

The SCLC is also growing, said Pitt County SCLC President Rufus Huggins, who has been a member since the early 1960s.

Henderson said staying involved in the community is a big priority for the NAACP. The organization advocates for better education, cultural awareness and political activism.

Henderson has a goal of registering 25,000 people for this year's election, an election he says is pivotal in America's history.

"If people want a change, then they need to do something different than they have done before and come out and vote," Henderson said.

All three organizations work to register voters.

The NAACP works closely with the NAACP college chapter at East Carolina University and with the Black Student Union at the college.

Henderson said that getting young people involved in the NAACP while they are in college can lead to great things in the future.

The BSU wants to reach out to the community and act more as a local organization, not just a campus group, said BSU President Patrick Dixon. Dixon said the two groups work well with each other, providing information and sharing resources.

"It provides us a link to the greater issues in the Greenville community," Dixon said. "The issues affecting students are different than the ones seen outside of campus.

"We want to bridge the gap and let it be known that we are part of the community and leave something behind when we graduate," said Dixon.

Dixon said one of the purposes of the BSU is to be a community resource.

"We don't want to act like a traditionally university club — we realize that our charge is much bigger than that," he said.

"We don't want to only help black students at the university. We want to be a part of the community."

BSU students volunteer in West Greenville to help young people there see that they can succeed and go to college, Dixon said.

The three leaders said that many civil-rights achievements have been reached in Pitt County, but the work continues.

"In some instances we are going back on ground that we have already covered," said Huggins. "You can accomplish a lot of things, but the fight will never end."

He said he gets calls every day about employment issues, the school system and other discrimination problems.

"It disturbs me when you have a person who is well-thought-of but doesn't move up in a company," Huggins said. "We at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference will not stand by any longer because we are going to get people opportunities."

Huggins said membership numbers are growing at SCLC because people are tired of standing by and watching their children and families being pushed around. He said a resurgence in discrimination is leading to a growing member base, now somewhere between 200 and 300 people.

Economic issues influence trouble in the black community just as much, he said.

"The top cannot continue to leave the bottom so far behind," Huggins said.

The SCLC works with young people to get to them before they are involved in crime. In fact, all three organizations want to slow the high rate of crime in Pitt County.

Henderson said working in the community is the only way to get out in front of crime. He wants to stop crime where it starts, in the home and on the street.

"Eventually it will spread to schools," he said. "We work so that students can go to school and learn and teachers can teach."

The force of three strong black organizations in Pitt County will continue, the leaders say. The black community can count on continued advocacy and service.

"We continue to be needed in the community and we continue to be active. We are not going anywhere," Henderson said.

Josh Humphries can be contacted at jhumphries@coxnc.com and 329-9565.