Sadie (Armstrong) Joseph (1944 - 2019)

Born 30 Apr 1944 in Woodville, Wilkinson, Mississippi, United States

Died 12 Jul 2019 at age 75 in Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States

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Biography

Sadie (Armstrong) Joseph is Notable.

Sadie Roberts-Joseph was a civil rights activist and community leader in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She founded the Odell S. Williams Museum of African American History in Baton Rouge and established the Community Against Drugs and Violence (CADV, Inc) organization.^[1]

Sadie Armstrong was born in 1944 in Woodville, Mississippi. She was the fifth in a family of twelve children. Her father, Johnnie Armstrong, was a sharecropper. The family later moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she attended Baton Rouge Vocational-Technical School and Southern University, studying education and speech pathology. She was an active volunteer in the local Black community, and worked for many years as a certified respiratory therapy technician.

She married Morris Roberts in 1963^[2] and together they had two children:

1. Jason Roberts (living)
2. Angela Roberts Machen (living)

Sadie was the founder and curator of the Baton Rouge African American Museum, which she started in 2001. The museum sits on the campus of New St. Luke Baptist Church, where Sadie’s brother is pastor.

Sadie Roberts-Joseph organized an annual Juneteenth festival at the museum, marking the date June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers delivered belated news to Texas that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all Southern slaves free. The document had been finalized more than two years earlier. She founded Community Against Drugs and Violence, a non-profit organization that created a safer environment for children in North Baton Rouge.

Roberts-Joseph also ran, in two unsuccessful bids, for Louisiana public office, for the U.S. Senate in 1996 and for lieutenant governor in 1999.

She was killed on 12 July 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is buried in Heavenly Gates Cemetery, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.^[3]

"Together Baton Rouge" said in a statement Saturday that "while her death is a tragedy, it would be an even greater injustice to let her death overshadow her tremendous life that left behind a legacy of activism and black pride that endeared her to the Baton Rouge community."

Obituary:

Sadie Roberts-Joseph, founder/curator of Odell S. Williams Museum of African American History, civil rights activist, community icon, educator, establisher of CADAV, Inc. (Community Against Drugs and Violence), native of Fort Adams, MS, resident of Baton Rouge, completed her earthly journey, July 12, 2019. She was a member of New St. Luke, B.C., pastored by Bishop Joseph Armstrong. Sadie served countless organizations at local, state, and national levels. Her life and legacy will be treasured by daughter, Dr. Angela R. Machen; son, Jason Roberts; 5 grandchildren, Nicholas and Dr. Leah Machen, Orion and Ayxa Roberts and Freeman Wright. Public viewing will be 4 p.m.-6 p.m on 7/21/19 and 8 a.m.-10 a.m on 7/22/19. Hall Davis & Sons in charge of arrangements. Funeral service will be held at Living Faith Christian Center, 6375 Winbourne Ave, Baton Rouge, LA, Monday, July 22, 2019, 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, please donate in support of the Museum to the Sadie Roberts Joseph Memorial Fund at Hancock Whitney Bank.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia:Sadie Roberts-Joseph
2. ↑ "New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., Marriage Records Index, 1831-1964"
   Ancestry Record 6500 #900485817 (accessed 9 January 2022)
   Saddie Lee Armstrong marriage to Morris Roberts in Apr 1963 in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
3. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/201158913/sadie-roberts_joseph) : accessed 19 July 2020, memorial page for Sadie Armstrong Roberts-Joseph (30 Apr 1944–12 Jul 2019), Find a Grave Memorial no. 201158913, citing Heavenly Gates Cemetery, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, USA ; Maintained by Erin (contributor 46599159) Burial Details Unknown.

• 1950 Census: "1950 United States Federal Census"
  United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Wilkinson, Mississippi; Roll: 2698; Sheet Number: 37; Enumeration District: 79-9
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 62308 #48094682
  Sadie Lee Armstrong (6), single daughter, in household of Johnnie Armstrong (34) in Wilkinson, Mississippi, USA. Born in Mississippi.

See also:

• (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/14/sadie-roberts-joseph-african-american-museum-found/)
• Mervosh, Sarah (2019-07-15). "Killing of Sadie Roberts-Joseph, African American Museum Founder, Stuns Baton Rouge". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331
• Nicole Chavez. "Sadie Roberts-Joseph, founder of an African American history museum, is found dead in the trunk of a car". CNN.

• Wikidata: Item Q65581497, en:Wikipedia