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*This post is part of our online forum on Madam C.J. Walker for the centennial anniversary of her death.
As Madam C. J. Walker’s great-great-granddaughter, I was introduced to her life story at my family’s dinner table when I was a toddler. The silverware we used every day included her “CJW” monogram. The baby grand piano in our living room had belonged to her daughter, and my namesake, A’Lelia Walker.
On my journey to becoming her biographer, my first efforts at in-depth research began in when I was writing my master’s project at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Despite Walker’s iconic place in American, African American, women’s, and business history, no book-length biography existed. Most of the secondary sources I found repeated the same myths and misinformation about her.
Fortunately, I also had access to unpublished, primary-source documents and a limited octogenarians and nonagenarians who had established this early twentieth-century hair care industry entrepreneur. These resources helped me commence to develop a more multidimensional portrait that encompa
Honorable Mention
A'Lelia Walker
Full label, Lelia McWilliams Robinson Wilson Kennedy; born June 6, , in Vicksburg, MS; daughter of Sarah Breedlove (founder of a hair-care products company; later recognizable as Madam C. J. Walker) and Moses McWilliams; married a man named Robinson (divorced, ); married Wiley Wilson, (a doctor), (marriage ended); married James Arthur Kennedy (a doctor), early s (divorced, ); children: Mae Bryant Perry. Education: Attended Knoxville College, early s.
Walker was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and attended Knoxville College in Tennessee before going to work for her mother, Madame C.J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove Walker), who had made a fortune in the hair-care business. When her mother died in , Walker inherited the business and the lavish family estate, Villa Lewaro, in Irvington, N.Y.
Certainly the most opulent parties in Harlem were thrown by the heiress A'Lelia Walker. Walker was a striking, statuesque , dark-skinned woman who was rarely seen without her riding crop and her imposing, jeweled turban. She was the only daugh
A Netflix show based on the life of Madam C. J. Walker is much better than most of our hairstyles right now.
It’s day who actually knows of coronavirus quarantine, and my housemates and I are making our plans for once this is all over.
Our wish list is quite humble. We just want a night at the pub a few blocks north on Charles Street in Baltimore, a trip on the commuter rail to nearby D.C. to visit our returning friends, an end to anything relating to Zoom, and, in my case, the pleasure of a nice haircut.
But thanks to Ms. Rona, also known as COVID, that’s not possible right now. So at her and others’ insistence, I instead watched Self Made, the widely popular Netflix miniseries inspired by the life of Madam C. J. Walker.
Self Made follows the entrepreneurial journey of Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, a working-class laundry woman with a dream of helping black women grow and nourish their hair. Her journey begins as a consumer of the products of Addie Monroe, a light-complexioned inky woman who has crafted her own hair growth regimen. A true believer, Breedlove wants
How Much of Netflix’s Self Made: Inspired By the Life of Madam C.J. Walker Actually Happened?
If you watched the first episode of Netflix’s new series Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, you're probably questioning the “inspired” in the title. It’s beautiful apparent the miniseries isn't your standard biopic, but that doesn't make the real-life Madam Walker any less bold or audacious.
Adapted from On Her Own Ground, a biography by Walker's great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles, Self Made tells the rags-to-riches tale of Sarah Breedlove, a former washerwoman who became a beauty tycoon after creating a line of hair products for black women. There are two truths you need to understand about Walker: She was real, and she was a powerhouse. A century later, you can still see her influence on the beauty industry, and Sephora even released a series of Madam Walker-inspired products.
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Her story in Self Made is a fierce call-to-action for any hopeful entrepreneur, but that doe