* Registration is required to attend online - see link at the bottom of this page. No registration is required for in person - just show up!
Mr. Ricky L. Hart, Chairman of the Stagville Descendants Council.
Mr. Ricky L. Hart, a native of Durham County, North Carolina, is dedicated to uplifting his community and fostering positive change, as seen through his journey from education, military service, and civil engagement. Ricky's educational path proceeded through Durham County's esteemed institutions where he graduated from Northern Durham High School in 1981 and pursued higher learning at Trinity University, earning both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. Ricky is a Cameron Grove Missionary Baptist Church member and served as a former member of the Pastor's Aid Committee. His military service in the U.S. Army Military Police Corp and his role as an Executive Security Detail Supervisor included being stationed across various U.S. and European military installations where Ricky’s leadership and professionalism earned him respect and admiration among his peers and superiors. He is a proud member of the International Free and Accepted Modern Mason Inc. and the Order of the Eastern Star. His commitment to Freemasonry spans decades of dedicated service which includes obtaining the most esteemed title of 33rd and last degree of masonry in July 2013.
Ricky's civic engagement underscores his commitment to social justice, equality, and community empowerment. He has been involved in various civil organizations and advocacy groups such as being a lifelong member of The National Association of the 9th & 10th (Horse) Calvary Association and the N.C. Buffalo Soldiers Greater NC Chapter. His community involvement includes the Durham Branch NAACP, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, Durham City Human Relations Committee, and serving as Board Chair of Lincoln Community Health Center. Ricky’s commitment to heritage and legacy is evident in his role as the Founder and Chairman of the Stagville Descendants Council, where he tirelessly works to preserve and honor the historical significance of his ancestral roots.
Ms. Beverly Evans, Executive Liaison of the Stagville Descendants Council
A native of Durham, NC, who resided in North Plainfield, NJ, and worked as a Classroom Teacher, Resource Workshop Teacher, Technology Coordinator, and Project Coordinator in the Department of Community Relations for Newark Public Schools as a liaison to the Mayor's office for 38 years.
Beverly is a 1966 graduate of Hillside High School and matriculated at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, NC, and received a B.S. degree in education in three and a half years. She studied graduate courses at UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, and received a master’s degree from Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ. After college, Beverly taught biology for a semester at Hillside High School in Durham and kindergarten for a year in New York before moving to New Jersey, teaching various grades for a total of thirty-nine and a half years.
During her tenure as Technology Coordinator, her students created satellites on the computer, using a math programming language, after studying heat-seeking satellites to find people lost in remote places. She submitted them to NASA and was selected as one of twenty-two finalists to participate in the Teacher in Space Program in 1989. The Challenger disaster was in 1986, and all teacher training ceased until 1989. It began with a rigorous eight-week training program at Langley Air Force Base in Langley, Virginia, in aerospace aeronautics, flying twin-engine planes, sailplanes, rocketry dynamics, laws of gravity, atmospheric experiments, and more. While there, the Black engineers and physicists informed the three minority teachers about Kathryn Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson and how they had laid the groundwork at Langley for future launches. We were honored that they became our mentors. We were in the program until 1993, with training at various centers: NASA Langley Research Center, Cape Kennedy, Johnson Space Center in Houston, US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Each of us received a letter of commendation from President George H. W. Bush for participating in the program. The group and our students participated in growing tomato seeds that were in space for six years on the Long Duration Exposure Facility, where 180 experiments were on board, and various other research projects, which the students loved reporting data back to NASA.
After retirement in 2012, Beverly moved back to Durham to become a caregiver for her mother until she passed at 97 years old. During this time in North Carolina, she began researching her ancestry, and thus the journey began, just three generations from slavery
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
