Three Mothers

The New York Times Bestseller

‘A fascinating exploration into the lives of three women ignored by history … Eye-opening, engrossing’
Brit Bennett, bestselling author of The Vanishing Half

In her groundbreaking debut, Anna Malaika Tubbs tells the incredible stories of three women who raised three world-changing men.

Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. However, virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, each fighting their own battles. Born into the beginning of the twentieth century and a deadly landscape of racial prejudice, Jim Crow, exploitation, unpoliced violence, and open police vitriol, their stories were left untold.

It was a society that would deny their sons’ humanity from the beginning, as it had denied theirs. Yet, Berdis, Alberta, and Louise were extraordinary women who instilled resilience, resistance, and greatness in their sons. They would become mothers not just to three world-famous men but to the civil rights movement itself.

These women represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.