Anna Malaika Tubbs, Author of “The Three Mothers"

Project Origin and Scope

• Anna Malaika Tubbs authored The Three Mothers, a work of original research documenting the lives of Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin, who were previously excluded from historical narratives.
• Tubbs began the project while earning her PhD; the scope deepened personally upon her own pregnancy, where she confronted the specific dangers faced by Black mothers in the U.S. maternity health crisis.
• The book establishes a direct correlation between the mothers' specific strategies for fighting oppression and the public personas of their sons: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin.

Systemic Erasure of Black Women

• Tubbs identifies the exclusion of these women from history as an intentional, systemic erasure rather than an oversight by the sons, driven by journalistic and scholarly biases that prioritize male heroes.
• Prior to Tubbs' publication, no scholarly work existed on the lives of Alberta, Louise, or Berdis; historical accounts often relegated them to footnotes or omitted them entirely from interviews with the famous sons.

Distinct Maternal Strategies and Son-Legacy Connections

• Alberta King (Mother of MLK Jr.): Raised within the Ebenezer Baptist Church leadership, she modeled the strategy that religious privilege must be used to advance justice and freedom for the oppressed; this directly informed MLK's nonviolent movement.
• Louise Little (Mother of Malcolm X): A radical activist and follower of Marcus Garvey, she championed Black independence, pride, and self-reliance, teaching her son to reject assimilation and rely on his own community, mirroring the Nation of Islam's later ideology.
• Berdis Baldwin (Mother of James Baldwin): Focused on healing through writing and sharing personal narratives, she taught her son to confront pain to move forward, a philosophy James Baldwin cited directly as he became a writer witnessing the "power of light."

Education as a Revolutionary Act

• All three mothers were exceptionally educated for their time (born between 1897 and 1903), defying societal norms that limited Black girls' education to roughly the eighth grade.
• Alberta King earned a bachelor's degree and teaching certificate; Louise Little served as a writer and secretary for the UNIA newspaper; Berdis Baldwin was described by her children as a brilliant writer whose compositions were far more advanced than her husband's.
• In all three cases, the mothers possessed higher educational attainment than their husbands, directly enabling the sons' success; for example, Alberta tutored her husband, the illiterate Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., helping him earn his degree and attend Morehouse College.

Maternal Testimony and Personal Relationships

• Malcolm X: Explicitly credited his mother in a letter from prison, stating, "All of our accomplishments are our mom's... We owe these to her."
• James Baldwin: Described Berdis as his "first love" and best friend; upon his death, he was buried next to her with a shared plaque, a rarity for a figure of his stature.
• MLK Jr.: Wrote letters to Alberta calling her the "best mother in the world," frequently acknowledging he owed everything to her.

Confronting Tragedy and Resilience

• Alberta King: Experienced extreme anxiety over threats and violence against MLK, occasionally requiring bed rest due to stress; she lost two sons (MLK and a brother) before being shot and killed in her own home years later.
• Louise Little: Was institutionalized against her will for 25 years due to mental health struggles caused by systemic racism; she was released 25 years later but lost Malcolm X to assassination a year after her freedom.
• Berdis Baldwin: Lived a century-long life (1902–1999), overlapping with Harriet Tubman's legacy and the modern era, witnessing her son's profound impact before passing at age 96.

Forward-Looking Statements on Racial Equity

• Tubbs argues that the fight for racial equity is a multi-generational legacy, warning against the "strategy of oppression" that attempts to end a movement by eliminating a single leader.
• Progress requires recognizing diverse strategies and backgrounds within the movement, emphasizing that solidarity exists even when activists disagree on methods.

Corporate and Economic Implications of Diversity

• Tubbs posits that diversity and inclusion are not charitable acts but necessary business strategies for outperforming peers in profitability and market share.
• She advocates for integrating diversity discussions into high-level conversations regarding margins, growth, and policy, asserting that inclusive teams better identify market needs and drive systemic change.

Family Reception and Research Methodology

• Tubbs exercised extreme caution in her research to avoid objectifying the families, relying on archival teams for the King family and brief, respectful interactions with the Baldwin and Little families.
• All three families have supported the book's release and expressed pride in the accurate representation of their matriarchs.