All last week I looked forward to writing this column to run on the eve of the recently canonized national holiday, Juneteenth. The holiday celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in 1865 and the achievements of African Americans ever since.

But we know the road to true equality has been rough. This is a tale of genius moves by local people who move things steadily forward while others are speechifying. One to one, without looking for glory, they bring people together while others moan on about irreconcilable differences.

Fittingly for a story with multiple plotlines, this one starts with a chapter.

Openly but without blowing its own horn, the regional chapter of the NAACP has used a signature approach to channeling local matters to national attention and back. People in power know about the New London and Norwich NAACP and its leaders for the behind-the-scenes work they pursue for equity and justice.

Ask Harvard University, embarrassingly called out by member Tamara Lanier over its use and possession of photographs of enslaved relatives. Ask the U.S. Coast Guard about the chapter steadfastly holding it accountable before Congress for the state of race relations at the Academy.

With that record, the chapter has the stature to attract nationally recognized speakers for its annual Freedom Fund Initiative dinner. The event that will take place June 27 at Ocean Beach Park will feature a marquee speaker: U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the former January 6 Committee of the House of Representatives.

The dinner is on for the first time since the pandemic. All that time the chapter has been waiting to highlight the Encountering Differences program initiated by the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut and to honor Jerome Fischer, the federation’s then-executive director, among others.

Encountering Differences basically consists of introducing high school students to outstanding Black leaders from the community. At the end of the program the presenters invite the young people to a dinner of traditional African-American home cooking in their homes.

“Encountering” uses the basics of getting-to-know-you to teach powerfully authentic lessons. Differences include not only race but age and experience. To hear from the Rev. Florence Clarke about being rounded up with fellow Civil Rights marchers in South Carolina or Attorney Lonnie Braxton about being among the first Black applicants able to get a home mortgage here gives credence to the notion that all Americans do need to know more about the nation’s racial history. The teaching does not require a formal, contentious introduction of Critical Race Theory; testimony comes directly from those who experienced it.

The Freedom Fund dinner will honor police officers and educators as well. Like Fischer and his ad hoc teaching team of Rev. Clarke, Braxton and Donita Hodge, the honorees are people whose super power is doing the right thing in the course of their work simply because it is just.

It was in response to cadet concerns about racism and the open display of the Confederate flag by some members of the cadet corps that Congressman Thompson’s history with the New London NAACP chapter developed. He cited the chapter’s concern on the floor of Congress. Even earlier, he and the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, were so bothered by the low numbers of minority cadets that they raised the possibility of changing the academy’s entrance procedures from proficiency testing to congressional appointment.

The Coast Guard balked, but even by March 2022, upon completion of a study ordered under the Coast Guard Academy Improvement Act, part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2021, the best the National Academy of Public Administration could say after assessing cultural competence among cadets, faculty and staff was that it was “within grasp.”

Cultural competence should no longer mystify the high school students who took part in Encountering Differences. As chapter President Jean Jordan says, “Guess who’s coming to dinner.” African Americans’ freedom, history, culture and achievements are embodied in people they now personally know.

Lisa McGinley is a member of The Day Editorial Board.