Expand Your Horizons

Anna Malaika Tubb’s new book, Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, literally expands your horizons. She redirects your view from these three famous men to the women who raised them, Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin.

By telling these women’s stories she widens the lens on who their sons were and where they came from. She reveals their lineage in political, spiritual and relational terms.

Not only does she tell the story of how these women shaped their sons, she describes how they influenced their husbands. But it’s not just about the mothers’ relationships to the men in their lives – it’s about who they were individually, their dreams, their yearnings.

By making visible the talents, passions and identities of these women before they had their sons, she also provides the context for the yearnings central to social justice movements that existed before, and fed into the civil rights movement, and the racial justice movements of today.

By reclaiming these mothers, Anna is doing healing work, and revealing the mother wellspring that nourishes humanity. 

In an interview with Alicia Garza, Anna describes her impetus for the book, “Moms are so underappreciated, overlooked, unrecognized. And that’s beyond biological motherhood – it’s those who are doing motherwork – those who are nourishers, who are teachers, essential workers are doing motherwork, caring for others, making sure that the world continues to move forward.” 

You can watch the dynamic interview between Alicia Garza and Anna presented by the Women’s Foundation California here: