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

Content Warning: This section discusses racism, racial violence, abuse, rape, and psychological distress.

Anna Malaika Tubbs is an author, scholar, and educator born in New Mexico. She spent her childhood in different countries, including Mexico, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Dubai, and the United States—experiences which she has identified as fostering a wish to connect people by celebrating diversity. Tubbs holds a master’s degree in multidisciplinary gender studies and a PhD in sociology from the University of Cambridge. While a student, Tubbs was president of the Black Student Union and an executive director of the university’s Alternative Spring Break, where she developed her organizing and fundraising skills, supporting the Black community and advocating for social justice.  

Tubbs’s scholarly interests center on issues of gender and race in the United States, focusing on the erasure and misrecognition of Black women. Her published work includes articles that range across motherhood, intersectionality, feminism, and the forced sterilization of Black women. Her work has been featured in popular media outlets such as TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, CNN, Motherly, Huffington Post, For Harriet, The Guardian, Darling Magazine, and Blavity.

Tubbs has been the First Partner to the Mayor of Stockton, California, and co-authored the first “Report of the Status of Women in Stockton” to promote policies using the