Roberts, Needham, 1901-1949

Roberts was the son of Emma Roberts and the Reverend Norman Roberts, who had moved to New Jersey from North Carolina in 1890. Roberts was born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised on Trenton's Wilson Street. He sometimes spelled his first name as "Neadom", which is how it appears on his grave marker. Roberts graduated from Lincoln Elementary School and attended high school, but dropped out before graduating so he could begin working, first as a hotel bellhop, and later as a clerk in a drugstore. At the start of US involvement in World War I in 1917, the seventeen-year-old Roberts lied about his age so he could enlist in the United States Army, falsely claiming to be eighteen. He was assigned to the 369th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 92nd Division.

<p>Together, he and Johnson earned a living by telling their story during intermission at silent movies.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, the two soldiers’ glory quickly faded.</p>

<p>Roberts was arrested, accused of molesting two girls, aged 12 and 14. He was acquitted of the charges but suspicion took a toll on his life. His wife left him, and he had difficulty finding work</p>

<p>The accounts of Roberts and Johnson began to diverge over who did what in the battle. A pamphlet, purportedly authored by Roberts, goes so far as to omit the part of the story where Roberts fell unconscious and Johnson saved him. (Hedgepeth doubts that the pamphlet was really written by Roberts due to several inaccuracies in it.)</p>

<p>Both Roberts and Johnson were arrested for wearing their Army uniforms after being discharged from the military.</p>

<p>Johnson descended into alcohol abuse and died 10 years after the war in a VA hospital. In 1949 Roberts, then remarried, was accused of bothering a young girl at a movie theater. Before he could be tried for this crime, he and his new wife hung themselves in the basement of their home in Newark.</p>

<p>Roberts proclaimed his innocence of both crimes and Hedgepeth said some followers of Roberts’s story believe he was the victim of institutional racism.</p>

<p>Despite his fall from grace, memory of the man Roberts once was apparently had not completely faded: more than 500 people attended his funeral.</p>

World War I United States Army Soldier; "Harlem's Hellfighters" He was sent to France with his regiment where they were put under the control of the French Army; awarded the French Croix de Guerre medal, the first American's to receive that honor;awarded the Purple Heart in 1996