'The Three Mothers' who paved the way for three extraordinary men

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

It's almost Mother's Day – so today, we learn about the women who raised some of history's most important men in The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped A Nation. Author Anna Malaika Tubbs told 1A's Jenn White that history is often told by and about men, but knowing these women's stories - "taking their lives from the margins and putting them in the center" - is just as important. As Tubbs notes, "If they'd never had these famous sons, they still were worthy of being seen."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Mother's Day is coming up, and so all this week, we've got a stack of books about moms.
0:10.8	Today's interview is from our friends over at 1A at WAMU, and it's with writer Anna Malika Tubbs, who wrote the nonfiction book, The Three Mothers.
0:19.3	And it's about the mothers of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin.
0:24.0	And yeah, while those men are fascinating figures of history,
0:27.4	Tubbs tells 1A's Jen White how much of their worldview was built by their mothers.
0:32.7	That's ahead.
0:34.1	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:38.9	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:43.4	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:45.5	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people
0:48.8	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:52.8	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:58.6	We've all heard of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin, but most of us know very
1:04.7	little about the women who raised them. A new book is trying to change that.
1:09.4	Anna Malika Tubbs is the author of three mothers,
1:13.1	how the mothers of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin shaped a nation.
1:18.5	And she joins us now to talk about these important women and why knowing their stories matters.
1:23.3	Anna, welcome. Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure. So how did you start down this path of researching the mothers of Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.? I, you know, I started my PhD just wanting to correct the erasure of black women's lives and black women's stories. I was incredibly inspired by hidden figures by Margo Lee Shetterly, as well as Isabel Wilkerson's the warmth of other
1:45.2	sons and their ability to show us that without understanding the Black American experience,
1:50.0	you can't understand the American experience and where we find ourselves in the country today.
1:53.9	I decided to focus on mothers because of this further erasure that happens.
1:59.3	This role of motherhood is so underappreciated, overlooked,
	...

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