On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A’Leila Bundles
(Format used for this read: Print–paperback)
When this book was suggested at my last book club meeting, we were all unanimously looking forward to reading it.
Unfortunately, not many in the group had ever heard of Madam C.J. Walker—I myself only knew a couple of basic facts–and that realization right there is part of my continued eye opening that we are all taught a VERY white washed history in this country….and we have GOT to change that.
We were all ready to dive into history with this book and learn all about her amazing life.
It is a VERY thoroughly researched book….I’m talking 100+ pages of resources cited at the end, yall 😱.
I really loved that this biography was written by a family member….it was so obvious that it was written with so much care, attention to detail and correctness.
(Plus there are also a bunch of super cool old photographs included from some of the personal family collection…so that was very neat to see)
Here is an official summary:
“On Her Own Ground is the first full scale, definitive biography of Madam C.J. Walker–the legendary African American entrepreneur and philanthropist–by her great great granddaughter, A’Leila Bundles.
The daughter of enslaved people, Madam C.J. Walker was an orphan at seven, married at fourteen and widowed at twenty. She spent the better part of the next two decades laboring as a washerwoman for $1.50 a week.
Then–with the discovery of a revolutionary hair care formula for black women–everything changed.
By her death in 1919, Walker managed to overcome astonishing odds: building a storied beauty empire from the ground up, amassing wealth unprecented among black women, and devoting her life to philanthropy and social activism.”
I want to go ahead and tell yall right now that I did not love this book.😐
I am so sad to even type that out….because I WANTED to SO SO SO BAD.
The reason I did not enjoy reading this book had ABSOLUTELY ZERO to do with the subject matter….
Madam C.J. Walker was a fascinating, powerful and hugely impactful woman.
Her life story is beyond impressive….she had SO MUCH steadfast determination and SO MUCH passion. And dang….yall want to talk about overcoming enormous hurdles and busting thru rock hard barriers….wheewwwwwww.
I mean….her business accomplishments ALONE (not even to MENTION her personal endeavors) are mindblowing.
BUT…..
This book reads like a dry history textbook.
Remember how I said this book is VERY thorough in research and there are TONS of resources listed….yeahhhhhhh….. there is a LOOOOOTTTT of info in there.
I love a lot of info, don’t get me wrong.
But sometimes during biographies it can just be presented in a very educational/scholarly way and my brain just doesn’t process in that direction.
Now…I will tell yall that this book was NOWHERE NEAR as tough to read as Alexander Hamilton’s biography. (I still am way too proud of myself for pushing thru with that one last year😁) …and thankfully also NOWHERE NEAR as long….but it still was hard for me to get thru.
Even though it was kind of a rough read for me, let me say that Madam C.J. Walker for reals was a phenomenon…and she deserves every single word on these pages to honor her story.
I am glad I read it and it did inspire me to continue learning more about her and her legacy.
One of the things I learned while reading this book is that the main driving force in Walker creating and growing her hair care product business was her devotion to uplifting, encouraging and helping other black women.
She wanted to show them how to specifically care for and love the unique and wonderful hair that God had given them….she never wanted to assimilate or strive for the white beauty standards of our white supremacist American society….her goal was to teach women how to regain their hair health and proudly embrace their black beauty.
There is a common misconception that was mentioned many times in the book that her hair products were designed to straighten hair. Many thought she WAS trying to have black women drastically alter their hair’s natural appearance which was NOT the purpose AT ALL.
Her hair formula was designed to restore scalp health to enable healthy hair growth. She called herself a “hair culturist.” So many women in her community suffered from many circumstances that caused hair loss or extreme hair damage: inadequate nutrition caused by poor living conditions, harsh daily working environments, and severe and damaging hair products.
Madam C.J. Walker always always ALWAYS prioritized caring for fellow members of the black community not just with hair care products, but she was also committed to advocating and providing for them however she could with her time and resources–volunteer work, charitable donations and fundraisers, and community education development just to name a few.
She has so many words that can describe her: business woman, pioneer, trail blazer, philanthropist, mentor.
Final thoughts on the book: Hard to read but worth the effort….also might be better on audiobook I think….
There was a Netflix mini series made not too long ago that is based on the content of this book, although I have not watched it yet. (Octavia Spencer plays Madam C.J., yall!)
From what I have read about the show, there seems to be a lot of historical inaccuracies in the show due to “Hollywood-izing” her story….so there is quite a bit of criticism on it.
However, I probably will watch it one day if I *ever* get around to my queue again…. so I am glad that I know her REAL story ahead of time.
(Hmmm…another similarity to the Hamilton book for me……)