Three Mothers

An extraordinary account of Berdis Baldwin, Louise Little and Alberta King: the mothers of James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

How did these three black women, all born within a few years of each other at the beginning of the twentieth century, face a dangerous landscape of profound racism, raise three of the most significant voices in the civil rights movement, and do the work of foregrounding that entire drive for the furthering of black voices and rights?

With brilliant new research, historian Anna Nti-Asare-Tubbs offers an intimate insight into the lives of these three extraordinary mothers and, through the challenges they faced and overcame, a broader story of black feminism, activism and survival in twentieth century America.

For fans of Hidden Figures, Melissa Harris-Perry’s Sister Citizen, or Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women.