The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

Emma Berdis Baldwin was the mother of the acclaimed African American author James Baldwin. Little was publicly known about her life until the publication of The Three Mothers and little primary source evidence exists for her early life. Most of the evidence for her life experiences comes from later records and the testimony of her children and other family. Berdis’s role in the book is significant as the mother who nurtured and guided one of the most significant American literary voices of the 20th century, James Baldwin.

Berdis was born in a rural community in Deal Island, Maryland. Her father was a waterman and her mother died while giving birth. Berdis gave birth to James Baldwin in 1924, in New York. Berdis kept the identity of Baldwin’s biological father a secret throughout her life. Berdis raised Baldwin as a single mother until she met and married David Baldwin, a preacher with whom she went on to have eight children. David became increasingly abusive and violent toward James and Berdis—behavior that Tubbs largely presents as the result of anger at racial discrimination. Tubbs frames Berdis as a loving and patient mother who always supported James’s creative talents, and who tried to protect her son from David’s abuse. The book emphasizes her as a gentle and quiet woman and as the most traditionally “feminine” of the three women. Berdis taught her family the value of love, freedom, and forgiveness—ideas that are prominent in James Baldwin’s work, confirming her influence. She highlighted the necessity of avoiding hatred and embracing life with hope.

Berdis in the book also represents the experience of mothers who are left in the home when their children grow up and/or predecease them. Despite the distance, Tubbs emphasizes that Berdis always remained connected to her children through correspondence. Berdis outlived her son, and despite her grief, she always fostered the family’s bond. Berdis died peacefully in 1999, in Washington, DC, where she spent her last years living with her daughter.

Alberta Christine Williams was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1904. Her father was Reverend Adam Daniel Williams, a Baptist preacher and leader of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and her mother was Jennie Celeste Williams, also actively involved in the church’s affairs. Alberta was musical and her education provided her with early ambitions for a career. Her role in the book is as the obscured but influential mother of Martin Luther King Jr. Her story, as told by Tubbs, is one of personal ambition and talent thwarted by institutional sexism which she repurposed as agency in motherhood and civil rights activism.

Alberta gained her teaching certificate in 1924 and became a teacher, a respected and well-paid job. Alberta had already met Michael King and they were married in 1926. Alberta had to abandon her job because local school laws prohibited married women from teaching. The couple moved into the Williams’ home on Auburn Avenue where their three children—Martin Luther King Jr., Willie Christie, and Alfred Daniel—were born.

Despite not being able to work, Alberta continued her studies after marriage and motherhood, earning a bachelor of arts in 1938. After the deaths of her parents, Alberta and Michael succeeded them as leaders of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Alberta was determined to continue her parents’ legacy of fighting for justice, combining Christian faith with political activism. Michael became the pastor of the church and changed his name to Martin Luther Sr. Alberta was the founder and director of the Ebenezer choir and remained the church’s organist for years. She was the president of the Ebenezer Women’s Committee and an organist for the Women’s Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention. Alberta was an active participant in the civil rights movement as an activist and organizer, a part of her life that is often disregarded. She was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).

Tubbs emphasizes Alberta as a mother whose influence and agency centered on education and lifelong learning. Alberta instilled her own and her parents’ teachings in her children. Her legacy as a social activist was significant for Martin Luther King Jr. and guided his political action in the freedom struggle. Alberta passed on her Christian values and drive for equality to her son, explaining to him the history of enslavement and racism. She always emphasized self-love and self-respect and countered any potential feelings of inferiority due to discrimination. Despite their privileges compared to other Black people at the time, the King family experienced tragedy and loss. Alberta lost her two sons in the late 1960s. Despite her grief, she remained a source of support and strength for her family.

Alberta was assassinated in 1974 by a gunman while playing the organ during a service in the church.

Louise Little was born Louise Helen Norton Langdon in La Digue, Grenada in 1897. Her role in the book is as the largely obscured mother of civil rights leader Malcolm X.

Louise’s parents were abducted from Nigeria and enslaved before being emancipated by the British Royal Navy. Louise had light-colored skin and it is claimed in a number of family sources that her mother was raped by a white man of uncertain identity. Louise was raised by her grandparents. She excelled as a student and developed an interest in language and writing. She was educated at the Anglican school in Grenada and was fluent in English, French, and the Grenadian French dialect. After her grandmother’s death, she emigrated to Montreal, Canada, following her uncle Egerton Langdon, an activist himself, who introduced her to Garveyism. Louise soon became a member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. In Montreal, Louise began to work on Black newspapers, developing her activism and advocacy against racism and white supremacy.

While in Montreal, Louise met Earl Little, a carpenter and minister from Georgia. They married in 1919 and had seven children together. The couple moved to the United States and started touring the country, spreading the ideas of Garveyism and working with local Universal Negro Improvement Association units. Louise was proud of her Blackness and instilled in her children the value of autonomy, independence, and Black pride—teachings that were key in Malcolm X’s activism. Due to their activities around the country, the family was often targeted by white supremacists, receiving threats and experiencing harassment by extremist groups, like the KKK and the Black Legion. While pregnant with Malcolm and alone at home with her children, she confronted a group of men who threatened her. Earl was found dead in 1931, and despite his death being ruled an accident, Louise and the community believed he was murdered by white supremacists. Louise was left alone to raise her children.

Louise became involved with a man who left her while pregnant with his child. She began to experience a mental health crisis, struggling to support her children as welfare services entrenched her rights. Louise was forcibly committed to Kalamazoo State Hospital and her children were placed in foster homes. Louise was kept in the hospital for almost 25 years until her children’s endeavors secured her release in 1963. After Malcolm’s murder, Louise spent her later years living with her family until her death in 1991. Tubbs emphasizes Louise’s continued resilience through a life of poverty, hardship, and violence. She is also representative of Black women’s struggle against institutional discrimination and cruelty in the mid-20th century.

James Baldwin was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and a significant voice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His role in the book is as the renowned son of Berdis Baldwin, whose unrecognized life experiences and influence are brought to light. His work focused on the Black experience in America, making him one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. Baldwin spoke with passion about racism and race relations, being one of the first writers to incorporate a queer perspective in his narratives. Some of Baldwin’s most significant works include the novels Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and Another Country (1962), the plays The Amen Corner (1954) and Blues for Mister Charlie (1964), and the nonfiction books Nobody Knows My Name (1961) and The Fire Next Time (1963).

Baldwin was born in 1924, in Harlem, New York, to Emma Berdis, a young and single mother. Later, Berdis married David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher who became Baldwin’s stepfather. David became violent and abusive toward his family, especially toward Baldwin. During his childhood, Baldwin developed a love of literature, finding refuge in the library, and began writing at an early age. He was mentored by one of his school teachers, who discerned his literary skills. Baldwin was active as a preacher during his school years but abandoned it as he developed his writing. After his high school graduation, he worked various jobs while publishing in literary magazines and journals. In 1944, he met African American writer Richard Wright who mentored him and helped him secure a grant to write his first novel. Baldwin’s traumatic experiences of racism, violence, and discrimination in the streets of Harlem led him to leave the United States. In 1948, he moved to Paris, France where he spent eight years. The emergence of the civil rights movement in the mid-1950s brought him back home.

Baldwin was an active participant in the civil rights struggle while also continuing to publish. He engaged with leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and toured the South to connect with the Black community. He was involved in major civil rights debates and demonstrations like the March in Washington in 1963 and the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. The assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. deeply affected Baldwin. By the 1970s, Baldwin became disillusioned by the growing harassment and persecution against civil rights activists. He continued writing, publishing, and lecturing in universities through the 1980s.

Baldwin died of cancer in 1987, at his home in Paul-De-Vance, France. His work remains influential and part of the American literary canon.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and a major leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. His role in the book is as the renowned son of Alberta King.

King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. He and his siblings grew up in a loving and supportive family. However, his parents could not shield him from the experience of racism. Growing up, King began to realize the effects of racial discrimination while witnessing his parents’ fight against social injustice. King entered public education early. He attended Booker T. Washington High School, and at age 15, he was admitted into Morehouse College. Initially, King did not plan to follow his father’s footsteps, but renewed his faith with a Bible class in college and decided to be a minister. In 1948, he was ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The same year, King earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology and a fellowship for further academic studies. King enrolled in Boston University and while there, he met his future wife, Coretta Scott. The couple married in 1953 and they had four children. In 1955, King obtained a doctorate in systematic theology.

The civil rights movement gained momentum during the Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks, secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, opposed segregation on public transportation by refusing to give her bus seat to a white man. King emerged as the leader of the protest and official spokesman of the activist community. King adopted a philosophy of nonviolence, which was influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, as well as his parents’ values, and became the movement’s key leader, giving the struggle a national and international scope. King co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and with the contribution of other activists, he organized major civil rights demonstrations, including the Greensboro Sit-In movement, the March in Washington in 1963 where he gave his emblematic “I Have a Dream” speech, and the Selma to Montgomery marches. King was arrested several times during the protests. The struggle led to major constitutional changes with the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. In 1964, King also won the Nobel Peace Prize.

By the mid-1960s, King had become a target of supremacist groups and FBI surveillance. King expanded his activism to Northern cities, opposing the Vietnam War and addressing economic injustice and the class struggles of Black urban communities. In 1968, persecution was a growing burden for King as he joined the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee. King was killed by a gunman while on the balcony of his motel room.

King had a lasting impact on race relations in the United States, as he remains one of the major political leaders and social justice activists of the 20th century.