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Reads like an academic dissertation rather than a biography. There is probably not enough historical information on these three women to allow each her own biography, however, I’m not sure lumping them together in one “biography” works. On the other hand, I think it important that there is now an obviously well-researched account of the circumstances and impact of these women’s lives.
This was a lovely read. Tubbs works with sparse biographical material, but is able to weave a richly layered historical context around the lives of the Three Mothers she writes about -- all in the service of celebrating Black motherhood.
I took a class on these three men in undergrad and loved it. But I realize reading this book, I heard nothing about their mothers. This was an incredible insight into where they came from and the women that made them who they were.
I don’t rate memoirs or biographical type books. This book was very impactful. I learned so many new things, many of which were painful. The descriptions of violence and terror these women and those around them suffered was devastating. However, I feel that I have left this book a better and more well informed person and hopeful advocate.
Wonderful concept, and I did learn a lot--but, as the author admits many times, the book is limited by the fact we don't have many primary sources from the women themselves, so there is a good deal of speculation. Still worth the read.
I'm so glad I took a time-out from my other book to read this. We truly need to celebrate Louise Little, Alberta King, and Berdis Baldwin. And we need to celebrate more mothers. This is one I will read again from time to time to give me a sense of hope. It is time to stop erasing Black Women from US History. Honor their stories already.
This book is an exceptional historical review of the lives of Louise, Alberta, and Berdis, the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, and James Baldwin. I happened to be reading it over Mother's Day, which made it especially meaningful. I tabbed so many pages and highlighted so many paragraphs. I cannot recommend this enough!
“I suppose this is an accurate and pithy description of motherhood, a lifelong wavering between utmost happiness and consuming worry.”
“While the sons have been credited with the success of Black resistance, the progression of Black thought, and the survival of the Black community, the three mothers who birthed and reared them have been erased. This book fights that erasure.”
“Beyond the normal fear that all mothers feel when the gut-wrenching thought of losing their child creeps its way into their minds, we Black mothers experience a heightened level of worry. We are aware of how differently our children are seen and treated in society, and our fears are confirmed by articles and news stories reporting the violence that Black children experience constantly, whether at parties, in school, or at their local parks. This fear continues as our children become adults who are in danger even as they sleep in their beds, sit in their own apartments, when they call for help, or when they go on a run.”
“No matter our gender, everything starts with our birthing parent.”
“Louise, Berdis, and Alberta were all born within six years of each other, and their famous sons were all born within five years of each other, which presents beautiful intersections in their lives. Because they were all born around the same time and gave birth to their famous sons around the same time, and two of them passed away around the same time, I reflect on Black womanhood in the early 1900s, Black motherhood in the 1920s, and their influence on the civil rights movement of the 1960s.”
“Black women were not safe. Black men were not safe. Black children were not safe. Violence against all Black people was justified by the law.”
“Black women are the ultimate practitioners of this ability to turn tragedy into opportunity, face fear and persecution with faith and unmatched perseverance, and create something out of nothing, because it has been required of us.”
“In the face of such dehumanization, Black families taught their children to love themselves. The families of Berdis, Alberta, and Louise encouraged them to believe in their dreams and future possibilities. They resisted by giving them a foundation of love and encouraging their minds by sacrificing whatever they needed to for each of the three to receive an education.”
“At the time, there was also a law that kept married women from teaching. This ‘marriage bar,’ which called for the termination of a woman’s employment after she married and even extended to some widowed women with children, lacked any logic; it was in place simply to restrict middle-class, educated women, and it was not fully terminated until 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act.” p.70
“Black marriage has been vulnerable to immeasurable stresses throughout the entirety of American colonial history. If it for these reasons that Black love and marriage are so revered and celebrated in the Black community. It goes without saying that Black couples, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came up against seemingly unending obstacles, but if they survived these, they became a symbol of Black resistance. These unions evidenced that nothing was more powerful than Black couples’ love for each other, that through this love the possibilities were endless.” p. 73
“Black parenthood—specifically Black motherhood—is both awe-inspiring and extremely vulnerable. When a Black woman is able to choose when she will bring children into the world of her own accord, it is a revolutionary act in the context of American history. When she is able to raise her children or choose to prioritize her children over obligations outside the home, it is in many ways an incredible feat.” p.83
“Since their arrival as slaves in America, Black women have been subject to the many abuses of white supremacy, seen most clearly in their relationship to motherhood. Slavery relied on reproduction and marked Black women and their procreation as commodities to control. Giving birth was not a Black woman’s choice; it had very little to do with her will and everything to do with fulfilling a white man’s economic needs. Slavery relied on Black procreation, and white slave masters did everything in their power to increase production of their most valuable resource. This reality rendered slaved extremely vulnerable to sexual violence. The rape of Black women equaled financial gains, and since the law defined them as objects, Black women had no rights over their own bodies or those of their offspring. Children born to slaves were slaves, regardless of how they were conceived.” p.86
“Berdis and Louise both gave birth to large families during a time when this was frowned upon for Black mothers, especially poor Black mothers. After the Civil War, it was no longer directly beneficial to whites for Black people to procreate. Black conception was no longer seen as a means of white economic gain. For this reason, Black women’s bodies were regulated in new ways. Strategy after strategy attempted to curb Black birth rates. Some whites feared that Black people would someday outnumber them and take control of the country. Other arguments stemmed from fears of Black people taking jobs and resources from their white counterparts. And all arguments relied on racist and antiquated beliefs that Black people were less than human and did not deserve equal treatment in the country they had built.” p.94
“Each of the three mothers held strongly to her belief in her family’s and her own inherent dignity, potential, and ability to make a lasting impact on the world. After everything they’d lived through and seen, all three mothers knew their children’s lives mattered, their husband’s lives mattered, and their own lives mattered, and they would not succumb to anyone or anything that told them differently.” p.104
“We’re the only race in America that has had babies sold from our breast, which was slavery time. And had mothers sold from their babes… We are not fighting against these people because we hate them, but we are fighting because we love them and we’re the only thing that can save them now.” — Fannie Lou Hamer, p.127
“She took her children everything: they attended Catholic mass, congregated with Baptists, and learned from Hindus. And after every visit, they would come home and discuss their thoughts. Louise would say, ‘You take what you see will fit you, and the rest of it, just leave it there, but establish your own relationship with God, not a religious relationship, but a spiritual relationship with God and be true to that…You’ll find out that you’ll do better than you’ll ever do getting all hung up in these religions, and you won’t be confused.’” p.130
“Christine would fondly recall such moments, saying, ‘Every now and then, I have to chuckle as I realize there are people who actually believe ML just appeared. They think he simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world. Take it from his big sister, that’s simply not the case. We are the products of a long line of activists and ministers. We come from a family of incredible men and women who served as leaders in their time and place, long before ML was every thought of.’” p.133
“[Martin] described his approach to ministry by saying, ‘Any religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried.’” p.142
“To this day, Black mothers are vilified, told to do better with less, blamed when they cannot make ends meet, but never thanked when they miraculously do.” p.175
“Black people are the only ones who have had babies sold from their mothers and mothers sold from their babies.” p.176
“[Wilfred, Martin’s bother] recalled, ‘My mother didn’t want us to fall victim to [being told we were “less than”], so she would teach us at home when we came home from school. We would give her what we had learned that day, and she would then reteach it to us and give it to us in a way where it would do away with some of those negative things they had incorporated in there…and I never remember a time when we ever felt that because we were black, we were something inferior to anybody else.’” p.190
“In the lives of Louise, Alberta, and Berdis exists a record of the United States and Black American history, through the eyes of Black women over a century. Among the three of them, they lived through the elections of nineteen U.S. presidents, World War I, World War II, the Great Depression, the Cold War, the space race, and even the Monica Lewinsky scandal. They were alive fro key events in Black history, including the formation of the NAACP, the beginnings of Black sororities and fraternities, the Red Summer, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the lynching of Emmett Till, the civil rights movement, the brutal attack of Rodney King, and so much more. And of course, they did not jus live to see these moments, they played active roles in them.” p.198
“Black mothers have always been ready and willing to do whatever it takes to transform the world for our children. … We must also honor Black mothers who are currently doing the work to transform our world. May they be seen, may they be celebrated, and may they be thanked while they are still alive to hear it.”
“I suppose this is an accurate and pithy description of motherhood, a lifelong wavering between utmost happiness and consuming worry.”
“While the sons have been credited with the success of Black resistance, the progression of Black thought, and the survival of the Black community, the three mothers who birthed and reared them have been erased. This book fights that erasure.”
“Beyond the normal fear that all mothers feel when the gut-wrenching thought of losing their child creeps its way into their minds, we Black mothers experience a heightened level of worry. We are aware of how differently our children are seen and treated in society, and our fears are confirmed by articles and news stories reporting the violence that Black children experience constantly, whether at parties, in school, or at their local parks. This fear continues as our children become adults who are in danger even as they sleep in their beds, sit in their own apartments, when they call for help, or when they go on a run.”
“No matter our gender, everything starts with our birthing parent.”
“Louise, Berdis, and Alberta were all born within six years of each other, and their famous sons were all born within five years of each other, which presents beautiful intersections in their lives. Because they were all born around the same time and gave birth to their famous sons around the same time, and two of them passed away around the same time, I reflect on Black womanhood in the early 1900s, Black motherhood in the 1920s, and their influence on the civil rights movement of the 1960s.”
“Black women were not safe. Black men were not safe. Black children were not safe. Violence against all Black people was justified by the law.”
“Black women are the ultimate practitioners of this ability to turn tragedy into opportunity, face fear and persecution with faith and unmatched perseverance, and create something out of nothing, because it has been required of us.”
“In the face of such dehumanization, Black families taught their children to love themselves. The families of Berdis, Alberta, and Louise encouraged them to believe in their dreams and future possibilities. They resisted by giving them a foundation of love and encouraging their minds by sacrificing whatever they needed to for each of the three to receive an education.”
“At the time, there was also a law that kept married women from teaching. This ‘marriage bar,’ which called for the termination of a woman’s employment after she married and even extended to some widowed women with children, lacked any logic; it was in place simply to restrict middle-class, educated women, and it was not fully terminated until 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act.” p.70
“Black marriage has been vulnerable to immeasurable stresses throughout the entirety of American colonial history. If it for these reasons that Black love and marriage are so revered and celebrated in the Black community. It goes without saying that Black couples, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came up against seemingly unending obstacles, but if they survived these, they became a symbol of Black resistance. These unions evidenced that nothing was more powerful than Black couples’ love for each other, that through this love the possibilities were endless.” p. 73
“Black parenthood—specifically Black motherhood—is both awe-inspiring and extremely vulnerable. When a Black woman is able to choose when she will bring children into the world of her own accord, it is a revolutionary act in the context of American history. When she is able to raise her children or choose to prioritize her children over obligations outside the home, it is in many ways an incredible feat.” p.83
“Since their arrival as slaves in America, Black women have been subject to the many abuses of white supremacy, seen most clearly in their relationship to motherhood. Slavery relied on reproduction and marked Black women and their procreation as commodities to control. Giving birth was not a Black woman’s choice; it had very little to do with her will and everything to do with fulfilling a white man’s economic needs. Slavery relied on Black procreation, and white slave masters did everything in their power to increase production of their most valuable resource. This reality rendered slaved extremely vulnerable to sexual violence. The rape of Black women equaled financial gains, and since the law defined them as objects, Black women had no rights over their own bodies or those of their offspring. Children born to slaves were slaves, regardless of how they were conceived.” p.86
“Berdis and Louise both gave birth to large families during a time when this was frowned upon for Black mothers, especially poor Black mothers. After the Civil War, it was no longer directly beneficial to whites for Black people to procreate. Black conception was no longer seen as a means of white economic gain. For this reason, Black women’s bodies were regulated in new ways. Strategy after strategy attempted to curb Black birth rates. Some whites feared that Black people would someday outnumber them and take control of the country. Other arguments stemmed from fears of Black people taking jobs and resources from their white counterparts. And all arguments relied on racist and antiquated beliefs that Black people were less than human and did not deserve equal treatment in the country they had built.” p.94
“Each of the three mothers held strongly to her belief in her family’s and her own inherent dignity, potential, and ability to make a lasting impact on the world. After everything they’d lived through and seen, all three mothers knew their children’s lives mattered, their husband’s lives mattered, and their own lives mattered, and they would not succumb to anyone or anything that told them differently.” p.104
“We’re the only race in America that has had babies sold from our breast, which was slavery time. And had mothers sold from their babes… We are not fighting against these people because we hate them, but we are fighting because we love them and we’re the only thing that can save them now.” — Fannie Lou Hamer, p.127
“She took her children everything: they attended Catholic mass, congregated with Baptists, and learned from Hindus. And after every visit, they would come home and discuss their thoughts. Louise would say, ‘You take what you see will fit you, and the rest of it, just leave it there, but establish your own relationship with God, not a religious relationship, but a spiritual relationship with God and be true to that…You’ll find out that you’ll do better than you’ll ever do getting all hung up in these religions, and you won’t be confused.’” p.130
“Christine would fondly recall such moments, saying, ‘Every now and then, I have to chuckle as I realize there are people who actually believe ML just appeared. They think he simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world. Take it from his big sister, that’s simply not the case. We are the products of a long line of activists and ministers. We come from a family of incredible men and women who served as leaders in their time and place, long before ML was every thought of.’” p.133
“[Martin] described his approach to ministry by saying, ‘Any religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried.’” p.142
“To this day, Black mothers are vilified, told to do better with less, blamed when they cannot make ends meet, but never thanked when they miraculously do.” p.175
“Black people are the only ones who have had babies sold from their mothers and mothers sold from their babies.” p.176
“[Wilfred, Martin’s bother] recalled, ‘My mother didn’t want us to fall victim to [being told we were “less than”], so she would teach us at home when we came home from school. We would give her what we had learned that day, and she would then reteach it to us and give it to us in a way where it would do away with some of those negative things they had incorporated in there…and I never remember a time when we ever felt that because we were black, we were something inferior to anybody else.’” p.190
“In the lives of Louise, Alberta, and Berdis exists a record of the United States and Black American history, through the eyes of Black women over a century. Among the three of them, they lived through the elections of nineteen U.S. presidents, World War I, World War II, the Great Depression, the Cold War, the space race, and even the Monica Lewinsky scandal. They were alive fro key events in Black history, including the formation of the NAACP, the beginnings of Black sororities and fraternities, the Red Summer, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the lynching of Emmett Till, the civil rights movement, the brutal attack of Rodney King, and so much more. And of course, they did not jus live to see these moments, they played active roles in them.” p.198
“Black mothers have always been ready and willing to do whatever it takes to transform the world for our children. … We must also honor Black mothers who are currently doing the work to transform our world. May they be seen, may they be celebrated, and may they be thanked while they are still alive to hear it.”
I had a really hard time rating this book. While the story told is one that is important it does not align with being a deeper look into these three remarkable women and who they were.
She writes an important look at what it was like to be a Black woman through the late 1800s to the 1970s; and shares many of the horrors faced. Though I would say there are better versions of this. Looking at the book through that lens; I would give it a 3.5.
As a story about these women; I found it frustrating. There are other works that share more (particularly on Louise Little), she makes generalization that I felt undermined all three of them and her writing is poor. I was really bummed with this book overall.
She writes an important look at what it was like to be a Black woman through the late 1800s to the 1970s; and shares many of the horrors faced. Though I would say there are better versions of this. Looking at the book through that lens; I would give it a 3.5.
As a story about these women; I found it frustrating. There are other works that share more (particularly on Louise Little), she makes generalization that I felt undermined all three of them and her writing is poor. I was really bummed with this book overall.
A powerful, educational read about three important women we know too little about.