The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
By Anna Malaika Tubbs
Pub Date: February 2, 2021
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I received the print galley for this book a few months ago, in the midst of wrapping up a semester and a significant book revision, so it took me longer than usual to finish. There were some other aspects of the book that I also had some trouble with, but I’ll talk about the best parts of this book first.
At around 200 pages, The Three Mothers paints fuller portraits of Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin than has ever been taught or elevated during Black History Month or in general. By contextualizing these women and the courageous act of mothering while Black under a multiplicity of harrowing realities, including lower life expectancies for both mothers and Black male children due to the scourge of violent racism, Tubbs helps us to see the men history reveres — justifiably so — through the hidden sacrifices and tribulations of their mothers.
There is deep, resonant beauty in how Tubbs renders her own story of motherhood in relationship to these three mothers. Right away, I was taken by her vulnerability and honesty, by the hard truths about health disparities and other unfair challenges that Black motherhood requires. And then, with subsequent chapters, that intimacy became less and less a part of the narrative. That’s understandable, since the focus here is not her story, but that of these mothers.
One of the challenges I had reading this work was an uneven writing style. First, the lens from Tubbs is on her personal connection to the project, then it is on these women, mainly told by way of research written in a blend of creative nonfiction and journalism that can dilute the message. We are told, for example, on more than one occasion what one mother felt and thought. My journalism brain kept itching to know — how do we know what they felt or thought? These passages felt a bit discordant with the scholarly facts and details the author so lovingly and expertly lays out. And while I learned some new details about these extraordinary women — and a few about their sons; for example, did you know Martin Luther King Jr. started college at 15 years old?! — I came away from the book wondering if perhaps the subtitle, which promises to show us how the influence of these women shaped the nation, is ultimately overstating what the book can actually achieve.
It is both true that America does not give Black women or Black mothers proper protection, support or respect and that in order to delineate the impact of a mother’s life through such iconic men, a reader has to see, at least partially, that credit given by the men who are the focal point of the distinction. No, the book is not about these men, but their names are why we come to the work. Their words about their mothers’ influence are surprisingly spare, leaving Tubbs with the impossible task that she attempts to rise to to fill in the blanks.