WASHINGTON – After spending days thinking about the best way I could honor the legacy of Rosa Parks, I’ve decided to get a lifetime membership to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I’ve been urging everyone else I know to do the same.

I got the idea just the other day from Karen Hunter, the co-host of the “Morning Show” on WWRL 1600 radio. Ms. Hunter’s mother, a Southerner who came of age during the reign of segregation, wisely decided that a lifelong membership in one of the oldest civil rights organizations would help keep Parks’s memory alive. I agree.

In the press recountings of Parks’s courageous stand against the segregated bus system in Montgomery, Ala., some have lost sight of the fact that Parks – the mother of the modern day civil rights movement – was supported and nurtured by the Montgomery NAACP branch.

In the 1950s, the seamstress volunteered for the organization, serving as secretary for many years. It was through her involvement in the NAACP that she learned about the importance of protest and change. Had the NAACP leadership not assisted Parks after her arrest, it is doubtful that a successful boycott of the bus system would have ensued.

Although I have at times been critical of the NAACP over the years, it has been and remains the most important organization for African Americans in this country. Founded in 1909, the organization has historically championed important causes at a time when advocating such positions remained unpopular. It was the NAACP that pushed for anti-lynching legislation in the early 1920s and that aggressively challenged the disenfranchisement of thousands of African American voters in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

Today, the NAACP has a strong national leadership. Julian Bond, a former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who, after he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, was prevented from taking his seat by members who objected to his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was re-elected to his own vacant seat and unseated again, and then seated only after a third election and a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Bond serves as the chairman of the NAACP board.

Bruce Gordon, the former president of retail markets at Verizon, is president and chief executive officer of the 96-year-old organization.

Membership among young African Americans is waning, and college chapters have not been as effective as they were a few decades ago in recruiting new members. I worry that as the black middle class continues to grow and African Americans become more integrated into the mainstream, some will conclude that organizations like the NAACP and the Urban League are no longer needed.

The sad reality is that racism is ever present, operating in a more subtle form. One only need look at the government’s slow response to aid the residents impacted by Hurricane Katrina – mainly black – to realize that pressure from civil rights groups is still much needed.

Rosa Parks made history in life but was also honored in death when Congress voted last week to allow her body to lie in state at the American Capitol for thousands to pay their respects. Persons from all walks of life stood in long lines to say farewell.

Michael Graham, 28, made the four-hour trek to Washington from Harlem to do so.

“It’s important that we remember and pay homage to our heroes and our institutions,” Mr. Graham, a high school teacher, said. “Ms. Parks paved the way and now a new generation of young African Americans have to step up to the plate and lead.”

If we really want to honor the legacy of Parks, Congress should re-authorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is set to expire in 2007. This will happen only if individuals, through organizations like the NAACP, put pressure on elected officials to do the right thing.

“There are those that will honor her this week, that will seek to reverse the course she took and not enforce the laws for which she was arrested and struggled,” the Reverend Jesse Jackson said. “She is their trophy, but she is our morning star. We must be aware of wolves in sheeps’ clothing who continue to try to defeat her purpose.”

Mr. Watson is the executive editor of the New York Amsterdam News. He can be reached at jamalwats@aol.com.