MLK, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin were shaped by their mothers

“The Three Mothers” asserts the pivotal role these women played in the formation of their sons’ religious, political, and literary achievements.  

In her 2009 memoir, Christine King Farris, the sister of Martin Luther King Jr., notes that many people act as if her brother “simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world.” Dr. King, of course, drew upon many well-known influences, from Christianity to the teachings of Gandhi and the writings of Thoreau. But a significant part of his background involved being the son of Alberta Williams King. The civil rights leader credited his mother with teaching him about the injustices of slavery and segregation at a young age. 

Organizer and author Anna Malaika Tubbs has long been bothered by the virtual erasure from the historical record of not only Alberta King, but of Louise Langdon Little, mother of Malcolm X, and Berdis Jones Baldwin, mother of James Baldwin, as well. While it is not unusual for the contributions of Black women to be ignored, she observes, the three mothers “have been ignored differently,” in that “it should have been easy throughout history to see them, to at least wonder about them.” Tubbs’ illuminating debut, “The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation,” corrects that erasure, presenting biographies of the women that pay particular attention to how each of the three influenced her famous son.

Filling in the historical gaps was challenging; records of their early years, especially, are scant. Tubbs observes that “stories of their lives were scattered mostly in margins and footnotes because very few cared to document anything about these women.” Because of these limitations, “The Three Mothers” presents sketches of their lives rather than full accounts.

All three women were born around the turn of the 20th century.

Louise Langdon was born in 1897 in Grenada to an 11-year-old girl who’d been raped by a Scottish man. She was raised by her grandparents before leaving Grenada for Montreal as a young woman. Langdon became involved in Marcus Garvey’s pan-African movement, which advocated for independent Black nations in Africa, free of colonial rule. Through her work she met her husband, Earl Little, a minister who also served as an organizer for Garvey. The family, targeted because of their activism, moved often around the United States, finally settling in Lansing, Michigan. When he died in a streetcar accident – the family believed he was in fact killed by a white supremacist group that had threatened him – she was only 34, becoming a single mother to seven young children, including Malcolm.

Berdis Jones Baldwin also faced difficult circumstances. She grew up on tiny, isolated Deal Island in Maryland but in the early 1920s joined the Great Migration north, eventually settling in New York. James was born out of wedlock and never knew his father, but when he was 2 years old, his mother married David Baldwin, a preacher who became increasingly abusive to his family. The couple eventually had eight children, but she too became a single mother after James’ stepfather died.

Alberta Williams King had the most stability. She was born in 1904 in Atlanta, where her father was pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Her husband, Martin, was also a pastor; he succeeded her father, and for a time their son Martin Jr. preached alongside him. Williams King began her career as a teacher but was fired upon getting married because the local school board barred married women from teaching jobs. She instead devoted herself to the church, serving as organist for decades and establishing its choir and its women’s committee. Six years after Martin Jr. was assassinated, she was herself shot to death while playing organ during services.

Tubbs effectively argues that each woman had a particular impact on her son, citing Alberta King’s commitment to community and social justice, Louise Little’s dauntless political activism, and Berdis Baldwin’s love of writing and poetry. The mothers share another tragic connection: All three buried their famous offspring.

The tone of Tubbs’ book is celebratory. She notes that the ability of King, Little, and Baldwin to devote themselves to their children was a revolutionary act given that during the era of slavery, Black women were denied that basic right. At times, the author’s characterizations are one-dimensional, veering into sentimentality. For example, she writes that Berdis “humbly gave without asking for anything in return.” One can admire their achievements as mothers while at the same time wondering if there was more to them than utter devotion. It’s easier to accept without reservation something else Tubbs says of her book’s subjects: “It is time that the world knows their names.”