What Madam Taught Us

On the 100-year anniversary of the death of Madam C.J. Walker, one of America’s earliest Black female millionaires, her great great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles, reflects on her legacy.

For more than 40 years, I’ve had the privilege of writing books, articles and speeches about my great great-grandmother Madam C.J. Walker, the entrepreneur and philanthropist who died 100 years ago this month. On my journey I’ve learned about the fierce sisterhood she shared with women like journalist Ida B. Wells and educator Mary McLeod Bethune.

As she traveled, Madam Walker was often asked the secret to her success. How had she gone from washing other peoples’ laundry to being a boss with a sales force of several thousand agents in less than a decade? “There is no royal, flower-strewn road to success, and if there is, I have not found it,” she told a reporter in 1919. “For what success I have obtained is the result of many sleepless nights and real hard work.”

She also famously said, “I got my start by giving myself a start!” She knew that diligence alone was not sufficient, so she learned to harness the kind of personal power that would motivate others. When she arrived at Booker T. Washington’s National Negro Business League convention in Chicago in 1912 without a formal invitation, she requested a few minutes to share her story. On the final day, when she realized that Washington was not going to give her the chance to address the delegates, she took matters into her own hands. As the last banker completed his report, she rose from her seat, looked toward Washington and said: “Surely you are not going to shut the door in my face. I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. Then 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!”