Julia Roberts

This family history was told to me by the wife of one of Julia Roberts’ great-grandsons, and is posted with permission.
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In her time as a midwife, she "caught", as they say, almost 200 babies, including many of her own relatives. She was literally a "life-saver" in the Black communities of the area before local hospitals began to allow Black women to be admitted. Even after Black women were allowed to deliver at the hospitals, many women still preferred to deliver their children at home with the guidance and wisdom of Ms. Julia.

She was also a healer that her people looked to for medical help. Her grandson Alfred remembers having spinal meningitis, or something with similar symptoms, when he was young. His grandmother "whipped up" something to give him and he made a full recovery. Julia deeply believed in Prayer and knew it was the root of her healing powers.

During the Great Depression, she went to Philadelphia and worked as a domestic. There she met her first husband, Clarence Ash. They both lived on the same street and worked in white households according to the census data. This is how Julia's family believes she met Clarence. His family, the Ash's, were from Canada at some point in their history. After her husband, Mr. Ash, passed away, she moved back to NC, where she married Mr. Marvin Roberts.

As with other Black people during that time, Julia also picked cotton and worked on white people's land in the area to make a living. Julia inherited her own land for farming through marriage to her second husband, Marvin Roberts.

This is a small view into the life of Mrs. Julia Roberts from Kings Mountain, NC, who was a life saver to hundreds of Black women and children in that area, because she was a mid-wife.

These are photographs of Mrs. Julia Roberts and a pair of gloves that she wore.