Now a Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer, Self Made (formerly titled On Her Own Ground) is the first full-scale biography of âone of the great success stories of American historyâ (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Madam C.J. Walkerâthe legendary African American entrepreneur and philanthropistâby her great-great-granddaughter, AâLelia Bundles.
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Sarah Breedloveâwho would become known as Madam C. J. Walkerâwas orphaned 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. Thenâwith the discovery of a revolutionary hair care formula for black womenâeverything changed. By her death in 1919, Walker managed to overcome astonishing odds: building a storied beauty empire from the ground up, amassing wealth unprecedented among black women, and devoting her life to philanthropy and social activism. Along the way, she formed friendships with great early-twentieth-century political figures such as Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington.