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A review by kierscrivener
On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there, I was promoted to the washtub. From there, I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there, I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground."
This is not only a well detailed in depth biography of Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove) but also the events around her of the Reconstruction era, early civil rights in the the twentieth century, World War One and the Harlem Renaissance. Her great-great granddaughter A'Leila Bundles zooms in and out giving context to the various Black communities from the Black Cabinet of the Roosevelt years to Book T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the presidency of Woodrow Wilson and lynching and countless other influential Black icons of women and race rights. I not only came out knowing of Madam's life from birth five years after emancipation to her last efforts to attend the Treaty of Versailles to advocate for the rights of Black soldiers and liberation of the German colonies in Africa (she was blocked from leaving the country), to adjusting her will to give to charities and fight against lynching.
She went from a name I did not know to one I admire immensely. Her least accomplishment was her business, which made her a millionaire in today's dollars, she was not only brilliant, charming, enterprising and observant. She was kind and sociable and never forgot her humble beginnings and the generosity she received as a young widow and before a child bride and teen mom. More than her fortune and business acumen, she provided self esteem and reclamation to other Black women in a culture that wanted to assimilate and gave economic opportunities to anyone and then provided opportunities for schooling and encouraged political involvement and generosity.
The only complaint I could see lodged against it is that it is extensive and not written to be snappy but informative. So it might be found dry, but it is worth every bit of context and history on a often overlooked period of history, of Black civil rights and of women.
This is not only a well detailed in depth biography of Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove) but also the events around her of the Reconstruction era, early civil rights in the the twentieth century, World War One and the Harlem Renaissance. Her great-great granddaughter A'Leila Bundles zooms in and out giving context to the various Black communities from the Black Cabinet of the Roosevelt years to Book T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the presidency of Woodrow Wilson and lynching and countless other influential Black icons of women and race rights. I not only came out knowing of Madam's life from birth five years after emancipation to her last efforts to attend the Treaty of Versailles to advocate for the rights of Black soldiers and liberation of the German colonies in Africa (she was blocked from leaving the country), to adjusting her will to give to charities and fight against lynching.
She went from a name I did not know to one I admire immensely. Her least accomplishment was her business, which made her a millionaire in today's dollars, she was not only brilliant, charming, enterprising and observant. She was kind and sociable and never forgot her humble beginnings and the generosity she received as a young widow and before a child bride and teen mom. More than her fortune and business acumen, she provided self esteem and reclamation to other Black women in a culture that wanted to assimilate and gave economic opportunities to anyone and then provided opportunities for schooling and encouraged political involvement and generosity.
The only complaint I could see lodged against it is that it is extensive and not written to be snappy but informative. So it might be found dry, but it is worth every bit of context and history on a often overlooked period of history, of Black civil rights and of women.