The Legacy of Madam C.J. Walker: A'Lelia Bundles

Gracing the floors of Texture Playground for the New Year is A’Lelia Bundles, great-great-granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker. Today and tomorrow, she will share her story with us, and that of her great-great-grandmother, entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist Madam C.J. Walker.

Meet A’Lelia Bundles

Please tell us a little bit about yourself, as I am sure you are more than just a vessel for your great-great-grandmother’s story.
Four generations of women in my family were executives of the Walker Company. Some of my earliest memories were visiting my mother’s office in the Walker Building in downtown Indianapolis and playing on her typewriter and adding machine in the days before computers and calculators. The silverware we used everyday at home and the china we brought out for holidays had belonged to Madam Walker. The baby grand piano on which I learned to read music had belonged to A’Lelia Walker, Madam Walker’s daughter, who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
Fortunately my mother was wise enough to encourage me to follow my own dreams of being a writer and journalist. She understood how important it was for me to develop my own identity and career separate from my larger-than-life family members. So while I grew up surrounded by the Walker legacy, I was not overwhelmed by it. As a result, I think I truly appreciate and cherish my role as Madam Walker’s biographer. It is a gift and joy to share her inspirational story with others and to be able to use all the communications and story-telling skills I learned during my three decades as a television news producer.
After thirty years as a network television news producer and executive (with NBC News for 13 ½ years and with ABC News for 16 ½) years, I now spend my time as an author and public speaker. I’m also on several nonprofit boards including the Madam Walker Theatre Center in Indianapolis, Columbia University’s board of trustees, the Foundation for the National Archives.
I’m currently at work on the first comprehensive biography of A’Lelia Walker, Madam Walker’s daughter, whom poet Langston Hughes called the “joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s.” The book focuses on her life, parties, travels and friendships with many of the Harlem Renaissance’s most well-known musicians, actors, writers and artists.
I’ve come to believe that part of my life’s mission is to use the lives of the women in my family to re-tell and re-focus American history in all its diverse dimensions.

How was it growing up in the Walker legacy?
Fortunately I had very wise and supportive parents who encouraged me to follow my own dreams. My mother, in particular, understood the burden and the advantages of the Walker legacy because she had grown up at a time when Madam Walker’s name was known by almost every black person in America. She was the fourth generation of women in her family to be an executive with the Walker Company and, I think, wanted to make sure that I had the freedom to develop my own interests and my own identity separate from the Walker legacy.
I have always loved to write, so I followed my passion and became a journalist. The wonderful irony is that I returned to the legacy armed with all the skills I had developed as a network television news producer. I truly believe if I had felt obligated to join the “family business,” I would not have loved the story as much.

I know that you tour the country delivering speeches and conducting workshops. What has been the focus of these tours?
I love being able to use Madam Walker’s story to inspire others. Whether I am speaking to students at Harvard’s Business School or women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York, I know people are inspired and awed by the story. Madam’s story has so many dimensions from philanthropy and entrepreneurship to political activism and women’s financial literacy that I have a very large canvas on which to work.

Now unto your hair! What has your hair’s story been?
Like most black women my age, I’ve run the gamut. While my mother was vice president of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, my father was president of Summit Laboratories, one of the makers of the perms that became popular for black women during the late 1950s and early 1960s. I wore ponytails and braids—not cornrows, but two or three large braids—during most of elementary school. I had a perm from seventh grade—when I started taking swimming lessons—until my senior year in high school when I insisted on having an Afro. Through college and into my twenties, my hair was natural and ranged from a very short ‘Fro to a very large one. During my thirties and into my forties I went back and forth between perms and natural hair, short and long. Since my mid-forties, I’ve worn my hair in a short natural.
I really love seeing young sisters learning to care for their hair and experimenting. Some of the blogs like yours are just fantastic and are opening up a new consciousness and new possibilities.

What is your hair care regimen?
Wash and wear is the best way to describe it. I just want it to be easy. Like everyone, I experiment with different products. I wash my hair almost everyday and use a conditioner two or three times a week. I have a lot of gray hair, so I use different enhancers to bring out the silver and to keep it from looking dull and yellow. I use leave in conditioners and other gels and ointments.

Do you find yourself inclined to make concoctions every now and again?
I experiment with lots of products and am often approached by others who are doing research and development and asked to try out their products, but I’m much more focused on my writing and other projects. All the women in my family studied beauty culture. My mother never worked as a cosmetologist, but attended classes at the Walker Beauty School in Indianapolis because she thought more knowledge would help her be a better executive. I never attended beauty school, but am fascinated by the industry and its history.

Please visit tomorrow morning for an in-depth look into the story of Madam C.J. Walker.

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