Beverly Barfield-Lucas is keeping a part of Renton’s rich history alive, something she does for her own family too.

Her father is Clyde Coleman Barfield, an African-American, and her mother Bernice is Irish and Cherokee. Both have died, her mother in 1981 at age 71 and her father at age 101 in 2002.

“My family is rich in history,” she said.

It pleases Barfield-Lucas that Renton’s families have found a place where they can celebrate their own history and simply have a place to have a good time. She did just that on the family’s 3 1/2 acres in the Highlands growing up.

Now, that 3 1/2 acres, which the Barfield family owned for 55 years, is Heritage Park on Southeast Union Avenue.

“We call it ‘daddy’s park’,” said Barfield. The family originally suggested the name Clyde Barfield Memorial Park.

Years ago, she planted the big evergreen tree that now watches over the park bench dedicated in memory of her father. Her mother’s name isn’t on the bench, but she’s there, a rosebud held in a praying hand, that Barfield-Lucas gently touches.

Barfield-Lucas has made it a mission to pass on the history of black Americans in Renton. She grew up in part of the Highlands not far from Renton Technical College that was known as “Little Africa,” she says.

Now 66, Barfield-Lucas was born in Marked Tree, Poinsett County, Arkansas, in August 1943. That November, she rode by train with her mother and her Aunt Adrea to Seattle, to meet up with her father, who was working in civil defense during World War II.

They carried their belongings in two shopping bags.

The black families moved to Seattle during the war to find a better life, she said.

But those were hard times. Even harder than today, she said, if measured by what you eat.

Today, she won’t eat split-pea soup. “I gag,” she said. Some kids took to school a concoction of sugar, cinnamon and butter for lunch.

Her first address was 405 J. St. in the Highlands. She called her neighborhood “the projects,” just off what’s now Northeast Fourth Street. She would play in the woods where the Public Health clinic now stands.

Pop Sims had the best barbecue place, she said.

Her family lived on J Street for nine years before moving to the property now home to Heritage Park.

“They used to call this Little Africa,” she says of her neighborhood.

What once was a chicken house became a six-bedroom home.

She talks about a color divide in the Renton Highlands. Blacks couldn’t cross Sunset Boulevard from the “projects.”

“There were definitely lines,” she said.

She went to school at Highlands Elementary School and then McKnight Junior High School. She went to Cleveland High School in Seattle.

“Me and Renton didn’t get along,” she said. One restriction: girls couldn’t wear pants to school.

Later, she got her GED, a two-year degree and is now working on a bachelor’s degree. She has worked in foster care.

Barfield-Lucas and her family are probably best known for starting the Hilltop Picnic, that for years brought together Renton’s black families for a huge picnic at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park. It was started by her mother Bernice and brother John Coleman Barfield, who is now deceased.

Barfield-Lucas took over the organizing after her mother died. It was a chance for the black community to come together at something other than a funeral, she said.

The last picnic was in 1999. Renton’s black families have slowly lost their sense of community, especially as the elders have passed on, she said.

Barfield-Lucas talks of failing health, but she has another project in mind.

She is looking for a building – she has a couple in mind – where she could start Berniceas’ Place, a homeless shelter for mature women with children. She is naming shelter, open to women of all colors, after her mother.

The shelter would offer support to the women and help them get back on their feet, she said.

The main thing now for the tenacious Barfield-Lucas is to find the money for Berniceas’ Place. The slight change in spelling reflects how her father would lovingly refer to her mother, she said.

Barfield-Lucas’ mom also cared for foster children, 12 to be exact.

“She would have loved it,” said Barfield-Lucas of how her mom would react to Berniceas’ Place.