Anna Malaika Tubbs

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

The Three Mothers

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.

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

ANNA. NTI-ASARE-TUBBS

An extraordinary account of Berdis Baldwin, Louise Little and Alberta King: the mothers of James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

Three Mothers

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • USA TODAY NATIONAL BESTSELLER • AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR 2025 The new book from the New York Times bestselling author of The Three Mothers. In Erased, Anna Malaika Tubbs recovers all that American patriarchy has tried to destroy. Patriarchy has oppressed women and denied their contributions worldwide, but the United States of America has its own unique gendered hierarchy. Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs applies her signature blend of approachable yet rigorous analysis in this definitive and groundbreaking history of American patriarchy. She proves that humanity in the United States is determined by gender in a limited and flawed binary that is also always tied to whiteness. Tubbs shows how a fabricated hierarchy became so deeply ingrained over time that it now goes unnoticed, along with everything it intentionally conceals. From the founding fathers to the current Supreme Court justices, from the treatment of enslaved women to the American maternal health crises, from the exclusion of women in the Constitution to the continued lack of an Equal Rights Amendment, Tubbs brings together academic research, the stories of freedom fighters both past and present, and her own experiences to reveal what is erased in the wake of American patriarchy. The system has survived by hiding the tools that are necessary to dismantle it. But Tubbs beautifully reminds us that those tools, including our intuition, courage, ancient wisdom, and power, are still well within our reach. Erased is the story of the United States from a new perspective: one where the people who shaped this country–who have been oppressed and whose contributions have been denied–are at the center, reminding us that we can restore what has been strategically kept from us. Once again, Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs has written a book that will be a touchstone for conversations on gender, race, and equity for years to come.

What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us

Erased

Motherwit Through the Lives of Alberta King, Berdis Baldwin, and Louise Little

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • USA TODAY NATIONAL BESTSELLER • SHORTLISTED FOR THE STOWE PRIZE FOR LITERARY ACTIVISM In Erased, Anna Malaika Tubbs, the New York Times bestselling author of The Three Mothers, returns with an unflinching excavation of all that American patriarchy has tried to destroy. Patriarchy has ruled across the world throughout much of human history, but it operates differently in each nation in which it is found. In Erased, Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs investigates how our understanding of human identity in the United States has been determined since the founding fathers’ drafting of the Constitution, in which they excluded women from equal rights, protected the institution of slavery, and suppressed Indigenous belief systems. Spanning the full, unfiltered history of the nation, this groundbreaking history makes clear how deeply ingrained in politics, culture, and society our unique gendered hierarchy truly is and has been for nearly 250 years. Told with Tubbs’s trademark blend of rigorous research and accessible storytelling, Erased asks readers to suspend blaming themselves or one another for the struggles we face as a country and instead turn their attention toward an inequitable system that leaves none of us unscathed. Timely and eye-opening, Erased brings hope and guidance for letting go of American patriarchy once and for all.

Anna Malaika Tubbs

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