SALISBURY — The NAACP Salisbury Chapter’s Juneteenth Heritage Breakfast marked a milestone in the organization’s annual observance of the holiday — it was the 30th year that it’s been held.

Jill Wynruit Burch was at the first breakfast 30 years ago and told a crowded Salisbury Civic Center that she was delighted at the turnout of this year’s event, specifically how it has grown in attendance and community resource support.

The breakfast’s theme “Deeply Rooted: Building on the Promise, Thriving for Our Future,” featured a call to action by Michael Marsh, principal of Elizabeth Duncan Koontz Elementary School.

“I want to give thanks and greetings from Elizabeth Duncan Koontz Elementary School,” he said. “The Koontz family runs deep in Salisbury. Mother Duncan, her brother and father, were both past presidents of Livingstone College (Salisbury’s historically Black college). We want to give her memory honor and we are privileged to serve at the school that is her namesake.”

Addressing the crowd, Marsh set the tone for his imminent challenge.

“If I could call this anything, I would call it moving beyond emotion,” Marsh said. “There is a lot of social unrest going on in our society — the No Kings rallies, we have the war in Gaza that has now spilled over into Iran. We have the issues going on with Ukraine, we have the economy. There is a lot of unrest. There are a lot of things happening in our society and it gets emotional.”

Marsh urged everyone to think beyond the current moment, to let emotion stir them to action but not guide their decision making and to visualize what change can mean.

“You don’t solve problems by emotion only,” he said. “The protests and the rallies are just really the beginning. Y’all, that is the easy work. That is the easy work. I can hold a sign. I can shout and I can get angry. Righteous indignation is alright but faith without works is dead.”

Marsh’s next words reflected his years in education.

“What do we do when we solve a problem?” he asked. “Well, first we want to identify the problem. Some of us are mad for no reason. We don’t know why we are angry. What we want to do is identify the problem and then we want to analyze how to fix it. We move beyond analysis and then we start to garner a plan of action and gather resources. Then we execute. Talk is cheap. You gotta move. You cannot solve a problem without going through these steps.”

Thankfully, as Marsh noted, the NAACP has become masters of action.

“They have learned how to take the psychological and the spiritual and manifest it into the natural,” Marsh said. “They take what is in your heart and your mind and they put it in your hands and feet. They know how to fix problems. So my call to you today is to not just be emotional. I love to hear the songs of Zion. It stirred my emotion. ‘While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.’ I have to move on that and talk to God. I got to move, talk and work.”

Outside of the main room at the Civic Center was a table of NAACP literature and what the organization does.

“The history of this organization runs deep because they take our emotion, they take our concerns, they move it through analysis and problem solving and then they act,” he said. “We need you to support this program. Fill out those applications. But Dr. Marsh, I don’t have much resources. That is alright. It only takes a little bit. Jesus was a master of taking a little bit and making a whole lot of it. If he can take two fish and five loaves and feed a multitude, he can take our little pennies and change a nation. If he can take just 12 disciples and convert millions over 2,000 years, he can take your concerns and change a whole community and a whole nation.

“Don’t just be emotional. Move on it. Act on it. Sign up. Give your few pennies and he will take it and the action of the NAACP will move to make a difference.”

The Heritage Breakfast was emceed by WCCB Charlotte Rising’s Joe Duncan and included guest speaker Rev. Derrick Hawkins of Promise City Church and performances by the Youth 4 Christ Friends and Family Mass Choir, Mama Patience and Triple Threat Dance and Charm.

Duncan intermittently sprinkled laughter between moments of personal and community reflection. Then, Mama Patience, in her usual comedic cadence, said she wanted to give the audience a nugget with the hope that they would get a taste and go get the whole chicken sandwich.

“Why do we celebrate Juneteenth?” Patience said before offering a little history about how the Emancipation Proclamation signing was not the date that enslaved people earned their freedom. Rather, Juneteenth recognizes the day that the last of those enslaved people learned of their freedom following the Civil War’s conclusion. But that was only one step in a larger march to freedom.

“That is a nugget,” Patience said. “Now why did I give you just a nugget? Because I want you to be curious. I want you to know about your history. I want you to go to the library and I want you to read, understand me, read. They say if you put it in a book, you are going to learn it. I’m telling you right now, I want you to read.

“You can go home on Google and look for information but you better make sure it’s credible. Don’t just pull off of anything. I want you to do that, as you go to the library, read, and discern credible information. Ask your teachers. Educate yourself. It is so important that we know why we are free. That is the purpose of this.”

In a Facebook post, the local NAACP chapter thanked those sponsors that helped make the event possible.

“Thank you to our amazing sponsors whose support made this event possible and who continue to help grow this tradition year after year,” the post said. “Our 2025 sponsors are: Catawba College, Livingstone College, Novant Health, Food Lion, Salisbury Parks and Recreation Department, Alcorn Family, Duke Energy, HHJ Construction and First Presbyterian Church Race Task Force.”