Please join the USS Hornet as we observe Black History Month. We will be celebrating with a kick off on February 4th from 10 am to 5 pm. Presentations begin at 1 PM. 

Conway Jones will give the keynote presentation (Bio below).

Kelli English of the National Park Service (bio below) will be here to give a presentation about the Port Chicago Disaster. Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Katie Garchar of East Bay Parks (Bio below) will give a presentation about Thurgood Marshall and Social Justice. Thurgood Marshall Regional Park – Home of the Port Chicago 50 | East Bay Parks (ebparks.org)

The new African-Americans in the Military exhibit (created by the Walking Ghosts of Black History in partnership with the National Park Service and the USS Hornet Museum) is open to visit.  

Conway Jones Bio:

Conway Jones is a patriot, businessman, and arts patron. He retired from the United States Air Force Reserve as a colonel in 1993 with thirty years of combined active and reserve duty. He is credited with 87 airlift missions in Vietnam. He is the founding chairman of the Western Aerospace Museum, Oakland, California (renamed Oakland Aviation Museum). He is the past chairman of the Oakland Arts Council and the Alameda County Veterans Affairs Commission. He is founder and chairman of the Calvin Simmons Center for the Performing Arts. He is co-founder of Right Path to Learning, an IRS 501(c)(3).

Kelli English Bio (National Park Service):

Kelli is the Division Manager for Interpretation, Education and Outreach at John Muir National Historic Site, Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, and Rosie the Riveter / World War II Home Front National Historical Park. 

 Over her 20-year NPS career, Kelli has worked at Indiana Dunes National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Golden Gate National Recreation Area, arriving at the East Bay NPS sites in 2014. She has delivered a wide variety of interpretive and place-based education programs, managed visitor center operations, trained new rangers in interpretive skills, and worked with community organizations and park partners to engage urban youth with national parklands and the outdoors. Kelli holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. 

Katie Garchar Bio (EB Parks):

Katie Garchar is a proud East Bay native- born in Oakland, grew up in Alameda. She has been working as a Naturalist at Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve for 4 months. She is very grateful to work for such an amazing organization and very excited to help educate/inspire people about nature, conservation, and history!