The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

Content Warning: This section discusses racism, racial violence, rape, and the history of enslavement.

Anna Malaika Tubbs explains how her own pregnancy and motherhood connect to her academic work on Black motherhood. Her research on the lives of Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin has expanded her reflection on the happiness and fears of Black mothers. She notes that, while their sons have been celebrated for “Black resistance,” these women’s histories have been obscured and “erased.” Tubbs attempts to counter this erasure by demonstrating how influential those three mothers were to their sons’ lives. She highlights the significance of Black women’s studies and the necessity of affirming their humanity against erasure.

Tubbs emphasizes that the three mothers’ stories did not begin with motherhood. Alberta, Louise, and Berdis had their own identity and aspirations as independent women. Their consciousness was formed by the experience of “racist and sexist violence” (6) and defined the lessons they taught to their sons. Tubbs underlines that their differences illustrate the “nuances” of Black womanhood, which is linked to the long history of racist violence against Black people. She stresses the fears and challenges Black mothers face in a society that treats Black people as inferior.