How Three Powerful Black Mothers Helped Shape US History Emily Wilson The opening story in The Autobiography of Malcolm Xtells of Malcolm’s mother, Louise Little, facing down Ku Klux Klansmen who rode up to her house in Omaha, Nebraska, shouting for her husband to come out. Little, who was pregnant with Malcolm at the time, opened the door and told them her husband was away and she was alone with her three small children. Anna Mailaika Tubbs also recounts this story in her book A follower of Marcus Garvey, Little influenced who her son became, teaching him and his siblings about current affairs and “Garveyite principles of self-determination, self-reliance, discipline, and organization,” Tubbs writes in the book.