[3] Starks attended the Bryant & Stratton Business College in Chicago, Illinois to study stenography and bookkeeping.

1 in Charleston, and served for sixteen years as the grand chancellor of the state's black Pythians order.

[7] While Starks led the organization, its national membership grew from 9,000 to nearly 150,000, including adding 38,000 to the group's women's department, the Order of Calanthe.

[7] Starks encouraged members to pool their money to assist black business owners and entrepreneurs in purchasing property; the organization started the Pythian Mutual Investment Association for this purpose in 1902, and Starks served in the role of president of the association.

[9] He was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Charleston, and in 1911 the Knights of Pythias erected a 32-foot granite memorial at his gravesite.