On Her Own Ground is the first full-scale, definitive biography of Madam C. J. Walker – the legendary African American entrepreneur and philanthropist.
The daughter of enslaved people, Madam C. J. Walker was 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. 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 unprecedented among Black women and devoting her life to charity and social activism.
Along the way, she formed friendships with noted political figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.
About the Author
A’lelia Bundles, former ABC News Washington deputy bureau chief and chair emerita of the National Archives Foundation, has penned four books about her 2x great grandmother Madame C. J. Walker. An Emmy Award-winning television news producer, she participated in writing residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell. She currently resides in Washington, D.C.
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