The C.J. Walker Legacy
One hundred years ago today … Black newspapers carried advertisements for Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company, such as this one in the New York Age.
New York Age, 13 November 1920, p.2. Chronicling America.
The legendary entrepreneur C J. Walker is known as the first Black woman self-made millionaire. Her great-great-granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles, offers a multi-media perspective on her forebear's life at MadamCJWalker.com.
C.J. Walker. Undated photo courtesy A’Lelia Bundles/Madam Walker Family Collection.
Walker was sufficiently renown that the Crisis had run a photo of her Harlem townhouse, 108-110 West 136 Street, in 1916.
The Crisis 12.1, May 1916, p. 19. Modernist Journals Project.
Walker died on May 25, 1919, at her Irvington, NY estate. In 1920, her posthumous legacy was in the early stages of being forged. In June, a plaque honoring her was installed at the YWCA on 137 Street.
New York Age, 5 June 1920, p.1. Chronicling America.
The Walker company was now being run by A'Lelia Walker, C.J. Walker's daughter, who had joined her mother in business several years earlier. From the 136 Street address, popularly known as “the Dark Tower,” A'Lelia Walker became a pivotal figure in the Harlem Renaissance, supporting Black artists and creating physical and social space for queer culture. (See NY1920 contributor Hugh Ryan's story about A'Lelia Walker for NPR's "Code Switch" here.)
A’Lelia Walker, 1921. Amsterdam News.
The Walker family business, of course, was hair care, specifically, the culturally-vexed tradition of hair-straightening, sometimes seen as an example of “The internalization of White beauty standards” (Donaldson). Henry Louis Gates has quipped: “So many black people still get their hair straightened that it’s a wonder we don’t have a national holiday for Madame C.J. Walker, who invented the process for straightening kinky hair, rather than for Dr. King.”
The ad in the Age ran alongside numerous other listings for hair treatment.
New York Age, 13 November 1920, p.2. Chronicling America.
Amidst all these, one might notice an ad for “colored dolls,” made in Harlem by Berry & Ross, suggesting that dolls with dark skin may have been not easy to come by, and were sought after by Black families.
References/Further reading:
Donaldson, Chanel. “Hair Alteration Practices Amongst Black Women and the Assumption of Self-Hatred.” Applied Psychology Opus.
Gates, Henry Louis. “Madam Walker, the First Black American Woman to Be a Self-Made Millionaire.” PBS.Com.
WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, NOVEMBER 13, 2020.
TAGS: African American history, women entrepreneur, small business, products, beauty, fashion, hair, dolls, toys, queer history