In her groundbreaking and essential debut Three Mothers, Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin.

Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, all born into the beginning of the 20th century and its deadly landscape of racial prejudice. Jim Crow. Exploitation. Unpoliced violence. Police violence.

These women, in their common goals and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.