On March 18, the Women and Gender Resource Center partnered with Black American Studies, the Pride Center, the Multicultural Center, and the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program to host a book discussion over “The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation” by Anna Malaika Tubbs in celebration of Women’s History Month. The meeting lasted from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Multicultural Center and ignited conversations about Black women in history and their everlasting impact on America.

Heidi Marsh is the director of the Women and Gender Resource Center and the coordinator of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities. Marsh mentioned the partnership for the event was natural to the book and aimed to reach as many participants as possible. Thirty free copies of the book were available to students and staff thanks to the additional partnership with the local bookstore, Atlas Books.

Photo of “The Three Mothers” books. (Contributed/ETSU Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Facebook)

“There were lots of intersections between thinking about the lives of women, the lives of women as mothers, as Black women, and also tangentially related to the queer community,” Marsh said.

The lives of Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King and Louise Little, as the mothers of notable Black figures James Baldwin, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, gave readers a once-buried insight into history from their perspective as women and mothers. Participants shared passages, quotes and ideas on the topic and answered questions prepared by the author included in the book for open discussion.

“The right to be a mother, the right to choose to be a mother, the right to parent in the way that women would like to parent,” Marsh said. “It’s one of the questions in the reproductive justice movement, which is not just about choice or access, but it really is about justice.”

Centering on the experience of Black women, the event shone a light on hidden history and encouraged individuals to inform themselves on the perspective of the women’s lives as they spanned Jim Crow, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement.

“To read good books that spark good conversation and to be in community in that way feels really important right now,” Marsh said on the continuation of the book club.

In the future, Marsh hopes to host another book discussion next semester and is excited for the conversations the club will continue to kindle. For more information on the Women and Gender Resource Center, visit https://www.etsu.edu/wrcetsu/.

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