Great-Grandfather James Parks: His Life and Legacy

You an attend this event via Zoom or in-person on the Marymount University campus. To attend via Zoom, please register by Feb 9 by clicking here: https://forms.gle/vZDSyEU8BZaopkeT6

James Parks was born enslaved on the Custis plantation in 1843. He is the only person to have been born on the property to also be buried in what would ultimately become Arlington National Cemetery. James Park’s great grandaughter, Tamara Moore, will share mementos and artifacts from his life and tell us about him, the honor the US Government gave him upon his death, but also the community and family he left behind.

When Union troops occupied the Custis plantation in 1861, Parks, as a newly freed teen, was hired to dig the first graves. He also helped construct nearby Fort McPherson and Fort Whipple (which became Fort Myer). 

In the 1920s when the first effort to restore Arlington House began, Parks became the expert for the National Park Service, providing first hand accounts of the location of all the buildings on the site, including the slave quarters and cemetery, dance pavilion, and roads. The legacy of his knowledge lives on today in our nations most sacred grounds. When he died, he was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

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