Dr. Joseph Walker Roberts

Joseph Walker Roberts was the seventh son of Amelia and Presley Roberts who were both born in slavery. Joseph was born in 1879 in Loudoun County. He graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1907; later, he practiced medicine for some time in Salisbury, Maryland. Denise Oliver-Velez, the great niece of Joseph, says that family members recalled a newspaper article about Dr. Roberts telling of his heroic efforts attending the sick, both black and white, in the influenza epidemic of 1918.