"Caught in their times"
Gloria Roberts ponders the situation of her ancestors Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Theme: Opinion of Sally Hemings








Gloria Roberts, daughter of Pearl Hinds and Frederick Madison Roberts, graduated from the University of Southern California and studied at the Juilliard School of Music. She lived most of her life in Europe, where she pursued a career as a concert pianist and accompanist, specializing in African American spirituals and the music of George Gershwin as well as European classical composers. She lived as a child in the household of her grandmother Ellen Hemings Roberts and remembers her well.
12 Jan. 1999, Munich, Germany (by telephone)
Interviewee: Gloria Roberts
Gloria Roberts ponders the situation of her ancestors Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Theme: Opinion of Sally Hemings
Gloria Roberts recalls her family's attitude to race and skin color.
Theme: Racial Identity
Gloria Roberts talks about her father's relationship with his mother, Ellen Hemings Roberts.
Theme: Family
Gloria Roberts remembers Ellen Hemings Roberts, who was "my playmate, my best friend, my everything."
Theme: Family
Gloria Roberts recalls how one trip on an ocean liner led to an entire life and musical career in Europe.
Theme: Arts, Music, and Culture
Gloria Roberts plays "I Could Have Danced All Night"
From the album "I Been In De Storm So Long".
Theme: Arts, Music, and Culture
Gloria Roberts accompanies baritone Charles Fulton in Aaron Copland's "Ching-a-ring Chaw."
From the album "Charles Fulton, sings".
Theme: Arts, Music, and Culture