Roberta's Boys

This book tells the inspiring life-stories of four great African-American men (Dr. Willis N. Pitts, Robert B. Pitts, Dr. Raymond J. Pitts and Dr. Nathan A. Pitts), their wives, and their children. It explores how they recovered from childhood's tragic losses to succeed as accomplished professionals, despite the discrimination of the Jim Crow South, and how they contributed to the nation during the Civil Rights Era. They were four brothers, born in the early years of the 20th century to an educated and ambitious African-American couple of Macon, Georgia. Their parents, part of the emerging black middle class, gave them an affectionate family, a close community, and the best schooling available to blacks at that time. Then, a family tragedy took resources and security away and scattered the family to the four winds. In the years of the Great Depression, throughout World War II and beyond, these men would have to summon every ounce of the faith and fortitude they learned at their mother's knee: to survive, to finish college and graduate school, and to each make their own, notable contribution to the nation in government service or education. Each son gave his mother, Roberta ("Sis") Pitts, the credit for his success.