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

Black nationalism is a political ideology that emphasizes Black people’s empowerment through economic autonomy and self-reliance. It gained prominence in the 1960s and early 1970s as an alternative political strategy to assimilation and integration into mainstream white society. Malcolm X is one of history’s most significant Black nationalist activists, especially through his work with the Nation of Islam during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. As a strand of the struggle, Black nationalism emphasizes Black pride and self-determination and supports Black people’s rights to self-defense against racial violence and brutality. Malcolm X’s Black nationalist philosophy and activism directly influenced the Black Power movement of the 1970s.

The civil rights movement is the struggle against racial oppression and discrimination that emerged in the American South during the 1950s and grew through the 1960s. African Americans in the Southern states organized against racial segregation and demanded equal civil rights through nonviolent demonstrations and protests. The movement gained momentum in 1955 after Rosa Parks, a grassroots activist and organizer in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her resistance and subsequent arrest initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted more than a year.