Sonya Lucas-Roberts, better known as Sister Mama Sonya, is a woman of many artistic talents. She is a storyteller, poet, playwright, motivational speaker, activist, minister of the gospel, and author whose works weave stories from the historic Third Ward, the South, and the African diaspora.
She was born in Houston, Texas, but her words have traveled throughout the United States, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Ghana, and West Africa.
Lucas-Roberts is now entering her 70th year, but her aura is as energetic as ever. She attended HISD’s Lockhart Elementary School, Lanier Middle School and Jack Yates High School. She also received a BA in Political Science from the University of Houston and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law.
“When we were in elementary school, those Black teachers taught us that we were the best,” she recalled. “That no one was better than we are. And we can do anything. And we left that school thinking we were the smartest thing that ever that that ever happened.”
Speaking fondly of her childhood, Lucas-Roberts said her parents provided a home where she and her two sisters could thrive.
“..we had fun and laughter in our home,” she said. “Mom and Daddy lived by example. We were always involved in stuff in the community.”
She is active in several community groups, including the Houston and Disproportionality Advisory Committee, the University Museum at Texas Southern University, and Third Ward Community Cloth Cooperative.
She has been married to her “soulmate” Craig L. Roberts for 40 years, whom she met at a gospel group. Together, they adopted their daughter Shanice Ede.
“She is strong-willed, hardheaded and loveable. Loves her community!” Roberts said.
Today, she believes working in the community is a given when you live in one.
“If you’re gonna live in the community and you don’t do things to make it better, you have no right to complain,” she said.
According to her friend, P.K. McCary, Lucas-Roberts has always offered words of encouragement to her community. For example, she founded the Sisters CD (Controlling Diabetes), a diabetes support group network that empowers and educates women of color living with diabetes. She has offered her support by sharing her own lived experiences.
“Her words have always been more than just a saying. They’ve been a light, staying strong through storms, shining through the rain, reminding us that love’s warmth eases pain. She spreads hope, faith, and words divine, inspired by her love of the “Son”shine,” said P.K. McCary, a Houston-based artist, educator, and social activist.
Sister Mama Sonya’s childhood
Lucas-Roberts’ mother was a music teacher at Houston ISD who took her children to symphonies, the orchestra, and the Ebony Fashion Fair every year. Her father, whom the community called a “bootleg social worker,” started as a coffee blender and took them to places where there were “few Black people.”
“My mother always told us…you never, never, ever let anybody feel that you are less than you are,” Lucas-Roberts. “We knew that as Black children growing up, you had to be smarter than everybody else. All of us did very well in school…and we valued education…Mama instilled in us to love ourselves and to love people.”
Lucas-Roberts often reminisces about her time at the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, where her uncle, Reverend Albert A. Lucas, was the pastor. He was also elected president of the Houston branch of the NAACP in November 1939.
Her upbringing changed the way she perceived her life. But in 1963, the year of the March on Washington was “pivotal” for Lucas-Roberts. Her mother also reminded her of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in which four members of a local Ku Klux Klan (KKK)’s plan killed four girls.
“Mama said, ‘I would sit and watch the news and just cry uncontrollably,’” she said, adding that while her mother did not want her to watch it on the television, but her father insisted on her learning history by living it. “ I just couldn’t imagine how anybody could bomb a church…I am convinced that I carry the spirit of those four girls.”
Lucas-Roberts met Sarah Collins, the sister of one of the four girls who survived the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963) but lost an eye, during the S. H. A. P. E. Community Center’s Freedom Tour. She read out a poem on the incident for Collins, who thanked her profusely. “To say that poem in front of Sarah was the highlight of my career,” she said.
After finishing law school, Lucas-Roberts enjoyed working in the community more and took on case management. She worked with those impacted by Hurricane Katrina and children living with HIV.
“I’ve seen racism upfront…”
Lucas-Roberts remembers the Houston Independent School District v. Delores Ross lawsuit when in February 1956, a group of Black parents and students filed a complaint claiming that HISD operated a dual public school system by overlapping racially segregated attendance zones. The case was settled in 1981, but Lucas-Roberts believes the “school system is still messed up.”
“They took the white teachers and sent them to the Black schools and Black teachers over to the white schools. And that was supposed to show integration,” she said. “Some of the white parents wanted to start their own school district, the Westheimer School District, for white students, so they wouldn’t have to go to school with us.”
When Lucas-Roberts attended the Lanier Middle School as one of the few Black students, she remembers her Black friends wanting to audition for a cheerleader role. She remembers “it was obvious that the Black students won,” but when the results were announced, not one of them made it to the team.
“I’ve seen racism upfront,” she said.
Life as a playwright
Lucas-Roberts and her sisters, Bronwyn Lucas, and the late Lorenita Lucas, started the Three Sisters in the Spirit Theatre Ministry, aiming to bring awareness to spirituality, adoption, abstinence, self-esteem and women’s health through “edutainment.”
She is most proud of Sisters at the Cross, a play that addresses women’s issues. In it, women gather for Bible study, and when they get there, there’s a table covered with African fabric. The women are asked to pick an item from the table that “speaks to their journey.”
“The lady who tried to commit suicide picks up a gun,” she explained. “The lady who suffered from chronic pain picks up from pain pills. The lady who had suffered sexual abuse picked up a prop scarf. The lady, who was very vain, picks up a mirror. The lady who will no gossip picks up a telephone.”
Lucas-Roberts says the play tries to evince women’s issues. Once they discuss them, they nail the item to the cross hanging above. The crew gave the audience a heart and a pencil and when the play ended, it asked them to write something they wished to leave behind on the cross.
Health activism
Apart from her artistic venture, Lucas-Roberts also advocates for women fighting heart disease across the country. She joined the Texas Heart Institute as its Community Ambassador in 2018. She also graduated from the 17th annual WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium at Mayo Clinic.
She also lives with Type II diabetes, and has had to get three toes amputated because of the disease, one in 2019 and two in 2024. This led her to establish a support group for women of color with similar lived experiences.
She also published a book in 2004, Sweet Sensations for The Spirit, which chronicles the challenges of living with diabetes.
A regular speaker at HISD board meetings
All three Lucas sisters attended HISD. Lucas-Roberts’s time in the Houston public school system inspired Her to speak against the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) takeover of HISD.
“Everybody can’t afford to go to private schools, so we should all have equal access to an equitable education in public schools,” she said. “And that’s why I continue to fight….because I had such a good foundation in school, and I know what a good education could do, then everybody should have access to that.”
She also believes that using tests to gauge a student’s capability “doesn’t measure the right things,” particularly how “brilliant” they are at something. She also disagrees with HISD Superintendent Mike Miles’ New Education (NES) curriculum and the lack of libraries in those campuses.
“We have minority children who are being denied the love of books,” she said. “Me and my sisters, we learned how to read when we were three years old…we were already reading…If you don’t know books, then you’re not gonna know how to love books.”
