StoryCorps is a place where people share a conversation. They started 15 years ago with 2 traveling Airstreams set up as mini-recording studios along with a main site in New York. You could book a one-hour time slot for 2 people, and you interviewed the other person. Each conversation has been archived in The Library of Congress.

When they came to Houston back then, I booked time so I could interview my mother about the racism in Waco TX during the 1920s and ‘30s. She was a kid, and her father, a little man, stood on a rock wall and talked down a Lynch mob. Being a little kid, she didn’t understand what was going on at the time. But she did remember her mother telling her to lie down on the floorboards of the car while it was going on. If you don’t know the history of Waco back then, it was ugly. Not only were Black people lynched in public, they were often burned as well so their family wouldn’t even have a body to grieve over.

I also wanted her to talk about our time in Georgetown TX during the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Dad was Superintendent of Schools, and she was a teacher. Georgetown is the home of Southwestern University, the school both my parents graduated from, and they were thrilled to go back to that town with a small daughter and (soon) another on the way.

Georgetown was also known for its large KKK contingent at the time. Integration was not going to come easily to this town with hardcore white beliefs, even though it had a liberal arts college. Mom and Dad were there for 15 years when Dad drew a line in the sand that he was not willing to cross. The School Board refused to ratify his plan for integration of the schools, didn’t renew his contract, and our lives were upended. I wanted Mom to talk about this, but she glossed over it, refusing to remember when, once again, her hometown was out for blood.

Fast forward to today. StoryCorps promotes #TalkingTuesday. What’s a major obstacle that you’ve faced over the course of your life?