Tubbs intentionally wrote The Three Mothers in language that is counterintuitive to her academic training. People might pick it up because they are interested in these iconic men, but what they will discover is an extensive and rewarding history of 20th-century Black women.

As such, the book is part biography, part history and part running social commentary on the events of the past century. The Three Mothers discusses Louise’s work with Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, Alberta’s family history of faith-based activism and Berdis’ early years as a poet and spoken-word artist. She followed it, and the result is The Three Mothers, a book that maps how misogynoir (the unique intersection of racism and misogyny experienced by Black women) shaped the lives of three young civil rights activists long before they raised sons who would become leaders in the movement. When Tubbs learned that these women had been born roughly six years apart (though some accounts of their birth years vary) and that their sons were born within five years of one another, she knew she had uncovered an important connective thread. Then she looked at their mothers: Alberta King, Berdis Baldwin and Louise Little, respectively.ĪLSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of The Three Mothers. So she turned to Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin and Malcolm X, three of the most brilliant leaders of the 20th century. But she also knew that, in order to entice readers, she would need more than her sharp research skills she would need a hook.

With a background in sociology and gender studies, Tubbs was well positioned for the task. She wanted to write about women who “were there right in front of us that we just weren’t paying more attention to, or who were intentionally being kept from us.” “I wanted to do something where I helped this issue of uncovering more ‘hidden figures,’ ” she says from her home in Stockton, California. After watching Hidden Figures, the 2016 biographical drama about Black women who worked as mathematicians at NASA during the space race, Tubbs left the movie theater feeling both enraged and inspired. For Anna Malaika Tubbs, finding the inspiration to write her first book was a numbers game.

The three mothers anna tubbs