The Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, Inc., is a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.
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Robin A. Proudie a native St. Louisan, served seven honorable years in the U. S. Navy, and spent seventeen years as a civil servant working alongside senior-level government and military officials, and foreign diplomats based in Washington, D.C.
For nine years, she held a top-secret/sci clearance as a member of the intelligence community at the Pentagon. In this capacity, she was responsible for the special accreditation of the Corps of Military Attachés and Distinguished Foreign Visitors from over 95 nations. She liaised with high-profile foreign military generals and their staffs and supported U.S. ambassadors and their embassy staff stationed abroad.
Robin has held positions at the Department of Justice, Headquarters, Civil Rights Division as a special assistant to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and at the Community Relations Service where she helped to facilitate dialogue and mediation to communities in conflict. She also served as a confidential assistant at the Department of Agriculture, and helped to facilitate specialized training, technology, administrative and program support services to federal judges serving in the Judiciary.
She credits the diversity of her experience with helping to hone the skills needed to accomplish what she describes as the most important mission of her life – to honor and commemorate the lives of her Ancestors enslaved by the Jesuits in Maryland and Missouri, to advocate for repair, and to educate the broader public about this history now and in the future.
To accomplish this mission, Robin organized known descendants and allies to form the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, or DSLUE. DSLUE is a registered 501 (c) (3) historical preservation and cultural education organization based in the St. Louis metro area. She is also a founding board member of the Maryland-based White Marsh Historical Society (WMHS), a descendant-led 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to perpetuating the memory and heritage of the enslaved families that labored at the Jesuit-run White Marsh Plantation. In 2023, the WMHS became co-stewards to ensure the over 600 graves of the enslaved families and their descendants found on the former plantation are properly memorialized.
In her free time, she loves to travel and attend live jazz concerts and festivals.
Thurman Stephens, Jr. spent over 33 years mentoring and leading teachers and educating, coaching, and inspiring students in K-12 and postsecondary education.
He served as an executive administrator in the Dallas Independent School District, and principal in the Oklahoma and Michigan school districts. A proven effective leader, Stephens designed and enforced school policies and oversaw retention, training and development for academic professionals.
As administrator at Skyline Highschool, the largest highschool in the state of Texas and with over 5000 students, his sound decision making and skills in organizing, creative curriculum development and community engagement created a thriving environment for students that ensured a clear pathway to success.
Stephens held the position of sociology professor at Richland College where he taught introduction to Sociology, and Social Problems. He also served as a special advisor to superintendents and board of trustees advising on administration, curricula, financial management and operational matters.
Early in his career he served as a probation officer.
Stephens holds a master’s degree in Multicultural Education from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science degree from San Diego State University. He is a proud United States Airforce veteran and is an active member of the Church of Christ.
Recently retired, Stephens spends his time with his wife of thirty-two years and their grandchildren, and working to honor the contributions of his Jesuit enslaved ancestors by ensuring that their legacies are preserved, and their stories are brought to the public for generations to come.
Claire McFarland is deeply committed to issues of reparations and social justice. She is a member of the City of Evanston Reparations Committee and serves on the board of the Reparations Stakeholder Authority of Evanston, working to address the historic and ongoing harms caused by systemic racism and discrimination. She has written on the topic of racial justice, including the article “Antiracism in Action: Restorative Justice for the Harm Caused by our Legal System,” which was published last summer in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Claire is also an attorney and a professional speaker, frequently presenting seminars on estate planning and her reparatory justice work.
In her professional career, Claire is a managing partner and founder of Claire McFarland Law, Ltd., a law firm in the Chicagoland area that specializes in advanced estate planning, estate administration, real estate matters, and small business services. Claire has become particularly interested in the role of inherited wealth in the racial wealth gap in America, as well as the ways inwhich institutional discriminatory practices has contributed to this gap. As a result, she has made a commitment to using her estate planning practice to address these issues and work towards reparations for the harms caused by systemic racism and discrimination. She takes a holistic approach to serving the legal needs of families and small businesses, working to protect assets and achieve goals while minimizing the need for court intervention through proactive education, preventative planning advice, and exploration of alternative dispute resolution options.
Claire holds a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was an associate articles editor for the Northwestern University Law Review and a Dean’s List recipient. She also holds a Master of Arts in Middle East Area Studies from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, with a concentration in Middle Eastern economics, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics from Brown University. She is a member of the Illinois State Bar and the US District Court Bar for the Northern District of Illinois. Claire also founded and served as executive director of the Elder Law & Wellness Initiative, NFP in Chicago, IL, where she established and developed senior-focused programs, including legal clinics that provide free legal services and social service referrals to low-income seniors and their caregivers and family members. In addition to her professional work, Claire is affiliated with several bar associations, including the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network, the Cook County Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (where she formerly served as Chairwoman of the Elder Law and Senior Outreach Committee), the Catholic Lawyers Guild (current Board member), the Black Women Lawyers Association, and the Illinois State Bar Association
Chanda M. Satchall ( Major) is a transformational leader with deep worldwide experience. Her career spans twenty-five years as a registered nurse and a subject matter expert in labor and delivery.
Chanda currently serves as a Major in the United States Airforce. She has led on three continents and five U.S. military installations. Her leadership is battle-tested and has earned her numerous military and civilian awards. Chanda’s business acumen and uncanny ability to exceed the standard of excellence results in several benchmark process improvement initiatives throughout the healthcare ecosystem.
As the Chief Financial Officer at Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, Chanda utilizes her 12 years of finance and accounting experience to manage the finacial health of the organization. As a civilian, Chanda was responsible for managing a $3 milliion dollar budget for major hospital in Maryland. She currently manages a 300,000 budget as the nurse manager at Travis Air Force base.
Chanda also collaborates with DSLUE to create initiatives that supports disabled veterans.
Chanda holds a BSN from Molloy College and an MBA from Capella University.
Chanda enjoys cycling, coaching, and raising her 12-year-old daughter.
Lawrence M. Haynes is a native of St. Louis, MO and a descendant of the St. Louis University Enslaved. Haynes was born and raised in St. Louis, graduating from De Smet Jesuit High School. Haynes earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Benedictine College in Atchison, KS. Formally trained as a therapist, Haynes earned his masters degree in mental health counseling from the University of Indianapolis. Currently, Haynes is a Ph.D. student at Howard University studying Higher Education Leadership and Policy, and works as a program manager for racial equity at the American Public Health Association in Washington D.C.
Billi Wilkerson is the managing director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law. She is also a steering committee member of the African American Redress Network (AARN), and serves as advisory committee chair for the Descendants of the St. Louis Enslaved (DSLUE). Billi is an activist, community organizer, and a subject matter expert in racial reconciliation. She has facilitated training and workshops on anti-racism and racial equity and inclusion since the early 2000s. Billi earned her Juris Doctor degree from Howard University School of Law. Her legal scholarship and research focuses on the legal frameworks for Reparations, Human Rights and Civil Rights. She is certified in conflict resolution and anti-racism training. She has presented at conferences, symposiums, and events across the country to discuss transitional justice, racial justice, reparations, and parity for descendants of enslaved people in the United States.
Billi is a descendant of Gentleman Jim Robinson and her family’s ancestry is connected to Bull Run Park, Virginia, Williamsburg, Virginia, and Centerville, where family folklore contends that they are the descendants of the family of George Washington.
Kevin Porter, is the president and founder of the White Marsh Historical Society (WMHS), an independent, descendant -led 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to the research, preservation, and memorialization of the African American burial grounds uncovered at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, on the grounds of the former White Marsh Plantation. The WMHS endeavors to honor the enslaved families that contibuted to the foundation on the Roman Catholic Church in America.
Like DSLUE descendants, he is a descendant of Mary Queen, famously known as the “Poppaw Queen,” who was illegally enslaved by the Jesuits.
Kevin is an official working in records management for the federal government, and since 2016, he has worked with the Georgetown Memory Project and with other descendants of the Jesuit enslavement diaspora in efforts to reconstruct their families.
Gregory Holley is Pastor at Grace Fellowshp Church Center in St. Louis. He has provided spiritual guidance, food, shelter and clothing for St. Louis metro area residents for over 30 years. He is a DSLUE descendant and is committed to supporting the assiociation’s mission.
Cecily Hunter received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2014 at Marquette University, where she majored in History and Political Science and minored in Africana Studies. She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of American Studies at Saint Louis University, where she received her M.A. in 2016. Currently, she serves as the Public Historian for the African American History Initiative (AAHI) at the Missouri Historical Society. In this role, she conducts research and teach about St. Louis’s regional Black history through different mediums like public radio, news stations, Here’s History podcast, social media, public presentations, exhibits and as the co-manager of the St. Louis American column.
Linda Mann is a leading director and researcher on racial redress initiatives at the intersection of U.S. history, international human rights, historical dialogue, and reparations. Her areas of historical expertise include slavery, Jim Crow, and massive resistance. She has performed extensive case-studies in Prince Edward County, Virginia and most recently, with the Georgetown University (GU) enslaved descendants known as the GU272. Mann combines her skills as an ethnographer, oral historian, archivist, and conflict resolutionist, to develop racial redress.
In 2019, Mann co-founded the African American Redress Network (AARN). AARN serves as an innovative model for scholars and advocates for further groundbreaking work in activism to promote racial redress for U.S. historical racial injustices. Mann also serves as Director of Operations and Programming at the John Mitchell Justice Project at George Mason Carter School for Peace and Reconciliation and teaches at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) as an Assistant Adjunct Professor. Previously she served as the Executive Director for the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University’s School of Law and VP of Research for the Georgetown Memory Project.
Mann received her Ph.D. in Education Policy from George Mason University in 2015 and then held a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the American Educational Research Association. She is a seasoned educator with over ten years of postgraduate teaching experience on reparations and the ethics of leadership. Mann started her career as a conflict resolution specialist and has decades of experience as a political grassroots organizer.
Kamm Howard is a national and international reparations scholar and activist working for over 20 years building grassroots movements to obtain reparations for African descendants in the United States. From 2006-2022, he served as the National Co-Chair of The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, or N’COBRA. While at N’COBRA, he assisted in forming the vision and developed, led, and implemented many significant actions pushing forward and keeping alive the fight for redress and repair for the intergenerational harm inflicted on black people and for anti-black policies sanctioned by local, state, and federal governments affecting them to this day. In 2022, Kamm founded Reparations United to further his mission for obtaining reparations. He provides advisory and leadership to coalitions and activists in the movement. Currently, he serves as a Commissioner of the National African American Reparations Commission where he led in revising the federal legislation H.R. 40.; a bill to establish a commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. Also, he sits on the Board of First Repair – founded by Robin Rue Simmons of Evanston, Illinois, Global Black started by Dr. Amara Enya, and he sits on the advisory councils of the Advisory Council of the African American Redress Network (AARN) and the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, or DSLUE.
Christopher Tinson is an author, professor of history and Department Chair of African American Studies at Saint Louis University. Tinson’s teaching and research focuses on histories of Africana radical traditions, black protest movements, U.S. Ethnic Studies, incarceration, and race and sports. His writings and reviews have been published in The Black Scholar, The Feminist Wire, Radical Teacher, Equity & Excellence in Education, SOULS: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, and Black Perspectives, among others. His first book entitled Radical Intellect: Liberator Magazine and Black Activism in the 1960s is published on UNC Press (2017).
Tinson is a highly sought-after speaker and mentor who has led professional development workshops and lectured at numerous college campuses, high schools, and carceral institutions around the country. He has received the David Gruber Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Pauli Murray Book Prize for best book in African American Intellectual History.
Dr. Tinson received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2010. He has been an active member of several professional organizations such as the National Council for Black Studies, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora.
Nicka Smith is a host, consultant, and documentarian with more than 20 years of experience as a genealogist. She has extensive experience in researching the enslaved and their communities and is a valued expert in genealogy research along the Mississippi Delta.
Nicka has diverse and varied experience in media with a background in audio, video, and written communications. She’s appeared on TODAY Show, CNN, MSNBC, was featured on an Emmy winning episode of the series Who Do You Think You Are, and has been interviewed by Oakland Tribune, The Undefeated, National Geographic, and TIME. She is the host of BlackProGen LIVE, an innovative web show with more than 130 episodes focused on people of color genealogy and family history.
She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, a member of two lineage societies (Sons and Daughters of the Middle Passage (SDUSMP) and the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)), and a past board member of the California Genealogical Society (CGS) and the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (AAGSNC). Nicka served as the chair of the Outreach and Education Committee for AAGSNC, and is the former project manager for the Alameda County, CA Youth Ancestral Project where more than 325 youth were taught the value of family history.
Additionally, Nicka is the family historian and lead researcher for the Atlas family of Lake Providence, East Carroll, Louisiana, and guides and coaches an active group of family historians at the Who is Nicka Smith Patreon community.
Michael Brickey is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Saint Louis University where in 2019 he co-founded the Graduate Public Humanities Working Group. Members of the working group have developed a website documenting the history of race on and around SLU’s campus (sluhistorytour.org), hosted guest speakers, and organized panels around a variety of issues. In Fall 2022, the group organized the panel discussion, “Public Humanities with Purpose: History, Memory, and Racial Justice,” which for the first time ever brought humanities scholars into public conversation with Descendants of the Saint Louis University Enslaved on SLU’s campus. Michael hopes to help DSLUE amplify the silenced histories of slavery at SLU through the use of public memorialization in order to help transform histories of intergenerational trauma into a future of reparative justice for descendants of the enslaved.