As the NAACP national convention officially kicked off Saturday with its return to Detroit for the first time in 12 years, leaders are focused in one direction — toward 2020, particularly the presidential election.

"This convention is timed because it bridges us between now and next year," the Rev. Wendell Anthony, Detroit's NAACP branch president, said from the convention headquarters at Cobo Center. "And everybody has to get on board."

More than 10,000 attendees are expected at the 110th NAACP convention, where attendees will hear from speakers like Michigan's own U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, activist Shaun King and former Georgia congresswoman Stacey Abrams.

Speakers at Saturday's news conference highlighted a convention centered on policy change and political mobilization, with a keen emphasis on a 2020 movement.

The Saturday panel united Detroit and national NAACP leadership, along with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to introduce the week's message: "When we fight, we win."

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"We are fighting to ensure equal protection of the law is afforded to all citizens," national NAACP president Derrick Johnson said. "We are fighting to ensure that the promises made in the Constitution are afforded not only to our community, but to all communities. We are fighting to ensure that our young people will have a prosperous and bright future. We are fighting because we're obligated to do it. We will win because we have always won when we've taken on the fight."

The NAACP is as important as ever, Johnson said, because of a "xenophobic and racist climate that's germinating from the White House."

Johnson and other speakers discussed the urgency of the political moment, with many focused on racist tweets from President Donald Trump last weekend telling four congresswomen, including Tlaib, to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."

Trump declined Thursday to attend and address the NAACP convention.

"We hear racism, we hear white nationalism from the highest levels of our own government," said Leon Russell, national NAACP chair. "We hear United States congresspeople being told to go back where they came from. Some of us are old enough to have experienced being told to go back, to go back somewhere we didn't know anything about by people who never recognized the contributions that we made to this country."

Alongside addressing race in America, the convention, which runs through Wednesday, will focus on policy solutions to issues like mass incarceration, economic development and LGBTQ rights. It also will bring in 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls like former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Wednesday to make their appeals to voters.

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Karen Boykin-Towns, vice char of the NAACP Board of Directors, said black voters have shown immense voting power in past elections and can continue to do so next year.

"At the end of the day, what we learned, if nothing else, in 2018, is that black women are a voting bloc like none other ... that is why we have the leading presidential candidates all coming to Detroit to speak to us," Boykin-Towns said.

Boykin-Towns urged voters to both ask "tough questions" of candidates and examine how their policies will impact black communities. While the NAACP is focused on national voter education and impacting the presidential election, leaders said they're also looking to impact local races throughout the next year.

Youth-focused sessions throughout the week will focus on building black political power and on drawing young and older NAACP members' ideas and policy solutions together in the same spaces.

"We need to understand that the power in this nation is where our branches are in this nation," Russell told the crowd. "You start to change things in your local communities, so you have to start thinking about the people that you put in policy-making positions. Are they there to do government for the people, or are they there to do government to the people?"

Russell, the first speaker of the day, recognized the significance of returning to a city with a deep history in civil and workers' rights activism, telling attendees that "all roads lead back to Detroit." While many of the convention sessions are focused on nationwide action, organizers also acknowledged the economic and cultural impact the convention could have on Detroit, home of the nation's largest NAACP branch.

Just after the convention kickoff, the NAACP and Comerica Bank leadership announced a partnership between the two organizations to bring financial education and literacy to Detroit youths.

On Aug. 7, Sept. 4 and Oct. 2, the Detroit branch NAACP will host sessions for its youth council focusing on money and credit management, savings, budgeting and investing.

"Many of the ills that we suffer in Detroit have a lot to do with finances," Michael Cheatham, Comerica's vice president of Michigan corporate contributions, said. "We need more homeowners, we need people who are in homes to be able to stay in those homes. So by understanding some of these concepts, we can help with preventing, or reducing at least, the amount of foreclosures that are going on in the city."

Contact Emma Keith: EKeith@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @emma_ckeith.

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