Finding Little in the Sources: Uncovering the Life of Louise Little

This article examines the life of Louise Little, a woman best known as the mother of Black nationalist and Pan-African leader Malcolm X. It questions how scholars have historicized Little and critically interrogates scholars’ assumptions about her life. Using recently discovered primary sources, the article complicates previous scholarship that has oversimplified her life and experiences. By placing Little at the center of her own story, this article is the first to focus on the years leading up to and during her confinement at Kalamazoo State Hospital. In doing so, the article contributes to the growing body of scholarship focused on Africana, or African-descended, women who existed on the fringes of their communities and connects the state mental hospital to a larger network of carceral violence. Finally, this article unpacks the raced, gendered, and classed contours of mental wellness, an important yet understudied aspect of the African diasporic experience.