Anna Malaika Tubbs

She earned a teaching certificate and a bachelor's degree.

But because the law stated that married women could not teach, she was forced to walk away from a formal career.

She still did everything she could to provide for, educate and protect her family and her community members.

But that same care and shielding was not afforded to her in return.

Her life was tragically taken when she was shot in the back as she played the church organ.

The second story begins in Ladigue, Granada, at the very end of the 19th century.

A little girl is influenced by her grandparents to always stand for black pride and black independence by any means necessary.

At the young age of 17, she travels to Montreal, Canada on her own to spread the message of black liberation, and she joins the Marcus Garvey Pan-African movement.

This is just a brief introduction to Louise Langdon Little, a multilingual scholar and activist who also brought eight children into the world.

one of whom was named Malcolm Little originally.

He later became known to the world as Malcolm X. When Louise's husband was murdered and she was widowed when she was only in her 30s, white welfare workers started showing up and entering her home, questioning the way that she was raising her children.

a white male physician was sent to evaluate her, and he concluded that she was experiencing dementia, citing that she was, quote, imagining being discriminated against.

As a result, she was institutionalized against her will for around 25 years.

Each of her children were taken from her, and they were placed into separate foster homes.

The final story starts in the small town of Deal Island, Maryland, in 1902.

A little girl's life begins in tragedy when she loses her own mother.

But through this moment of darkness, she becomes somebody fixated on light and on love.

a talented writer, she uses her prose to inspire those around her to let go of their own pain and their hatred.

As a teenager, she travels to New York in search of a new start, and she arrives in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance.

This is just a brief introduction to Bertis Jones Baldwin, a mother of nine.