This paper examines the diasporic journey and legacy of Louise Little, a grassroots pan-African activist from the Caribbean island of Grenada who is best known today as the mother of Malcolm X. Brilliant and resilient, her life illustrates the Midwest as an epicenter of twentieth-century black global history, reveals the significance of working-class women to diasporic movements, and offers lessons in imagining and struggling for a more justice and democratic future world.