Participating in the StoryCorps oral history project marked a momentous occasion for 62-year-old Gene Parks. His great, great grandmother, Talitha Lewis, was interviewed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938 for a “Slave Narratives” oral history. Parks recently found her interview in the Library of Congress, where it’s been archived for more than 60 years. He came to the booth today to share his personal memories of Ms. Lewis who died at the age of 105, when Parks was 15-years-old. “This is Grandma Talitha’s second time ’round in the national archives,” he beamed.
