In the inaugural episode of Season Nine of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, which aired on Tuesday, Julia Roberts found out that her family had a link to slavery. She also learned about her ancestral narrative. During the course of the program, the actress discovered that during the time of American slavery, her family from the South held seven slaves.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the presenter of the television show Finding Your Roots, confided in Roberts that her ancestors had held slaves ranging in age from six to thirty-three, including two ladies, two teens, and three children.
According to TV Insider, when Roberts realized the 8-year-old and 6-year-old boys must be the women’s children, he responded with the phrase “That’s sad.”
Roberts said, “You have to think, if you’re from the South, you’re on one side of it or the other,” after knowing about her background and history. “Unfortunately, that simply appears to be pretty typical of people’s attitudes throughout that period… Even if you become a part of history in a manner that isn’t in accordance with your own moral compass, you still can’t turn your back on the past.
In October, Roberts discussed one additional significant aspect of King’s past when sitting down with Gayle King. According to a previous story by Blavity, the 55-year-old woman said that the King family of Martin Luther King Jr. paid for her parents’ hospital costs when she was born.
The actress said that the Kings first became acquainted with her family when Coretta Scott King inquired about the possibility of enrolling her children in The Actors and Writers Workshop, which is located in Atlanta and is run by the Roberts family.
As Gayle King was contemplating the difficulties that the King family had to endure as a result of segregation, Roberts shared with her that they had a difficult time locating a location that would take her children.
After the proprietors of the acting school let Martin and Coretta Roberts’ children enroll in the school, advocates for social justice gave back by covering the medical expenses incurred by the Roberts.
Roberts said that his mother agreed to his request and stated, “Sure, come on over.” “They all of a sudden became buddies, and they assisted us in getting out of a dilemma.”
