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This author pieced together what she could from footnotes and other scant bits of information about these women. I was nervous at first since she mentioned in her foreword she was completing her doctorate. I thought that her language would maybe be really academic or hard to follow, but I was very much mistaken. She takes all the little pieces and weaves the heartbreaking stories of these three women beautifully in a way that most people would be able to understand. Every detail feeds into these stories in such a powerful way, including the quotes she has at the beginning of the chapters, the story of Leapers Hill in Grenada, the similarities with Mamie Till, etc. Bravo, Dr. Tubbs!
P.S. A prime example of how black women’s stories are often lost: I wanted to draw attention to the fact that most people have no idea that Alberta King (MLK Jr.‘s mother) was shot and killed in her church. I definitely didn’t know until this book.
P.S. A prime example of how black women’s stories are often lost: I wanted to draw attention to the fact that most people have no idea that Alberta King (MLK Jr.‘s mother) was shot and killed in her church. I definitely didn’t know until this book.
I didn’t like that author’s writing style, but I was deeply appreciative of the research and content. I hope more is written about these important women in the future.
This is a tough book to review. The subject matter is interesting and important, but I've never read a book that so begged for an editor. As it is, The Three Mothers could stand as a first draft, one badly in need of correction and a competent advisor. I know that we are supposed to have given up concerning ourselves with correct usage, punctuation, etc., on social media, but this is a published book for god's sake. (For instance, can't we expect "lie" and "lay" to be used correctly?) What I found most jarring in the writing, however, is the juvenile style. The writing clunks along so painfully that I set the book aside several times, vowing not to finish it, but in the interest of the subject matter, I kept picking it up and slogging on. Fortunately, it is only 220 pages long; however, even that is a bit of an issue as it could be significantly shorter if someone had gone through the text and crossed out all of the padding. Sometimes it reads as though written by a high school student with a word goal to meet. I settled on three stars: four for content; two for style.
This is such an important book and I think everyone should read it! I learned so much more about the racism of the 1900s and the Civil Rights Movement, and it was truly inspiring to read about these women that history brushes aside for their famous sons. Loved it!
A very forthright and clear insight into the women that shaped the lives of such revolutionary Black men in America. Their activism wasn't born in a vacuum, and the lives of Bertis, Alberta, and Louise prove that. As a mother trying to raise kids who not only see and acknowledge inequities and injustices in the world, and then work to change them, what these women endured in their times and then and taught is awe-inspiring. It offered me a valuable perspective into the lives of James, Malcolm, and Martin Luther that I haven't gleaned from other works thus far. The author did a really admirable job not only in the extensive amount of research required for this compilation, but the broader context of the world in which these people lived and how it likely affected them and their communities.
This book was excellent and so interesting to learn not just about the three mothers of these famous men, but also to see how and where the erasure of women-especially black women-occurs systematically throughout our society. I loved that while the mothers were similar in some ways, they each approached womanhood and motherhood a little differently and found the authors assertion that there is no one way to be a (black) woman, and no one way to be a mother. A fantastic read.
This book is a really interesting, really fast read. Loved the premise and it was skillfully woven together in a way that felt authentic, not forcefully or artificially-themed. More like this, please!
I was very interested in the lives of these women and wish more people were taught about the ways that the women of esteemed men shaped their journeys. I understand the need for historical context here to show the "other" of Louise, Alberta, and Berdis but sometimes it felt more like a discussion of American history than these women-- the latter half of the book with more life details centralized on their contributions was much more engaging for me.
informative
medium-paced