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A’Lelia Bundles

In sharing Madam Walker’s story, she is continuing a legacy of empowering women to be independent and to come together as a community to support one another, which is what she feels Madam Walker would be most proud of her for.

By Laura Tuzzio

A’Lelia Bundles has been researching her family history for the better part of 50 years. That research has produced four books, several speaking engagements and even inspired a Netflix series. A’Lelia is the great-great-granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, an entrepreneur known to be the first selfmade American woman millionaire. Madam Walker began building her empire of hair care products in the early 1900s, traveling doorto-door to spread the word.

A’Lelia and many others credit her with paving the way for women, especially African American women, by instilling in them “a vision of themselves as being able to be economically independent.” Madam Walker further encouraged women to “use their good fortune to try to benefit their communities.” It is this legacy of Madam Walker that A’Lelia is honored to keep alive. In a society where young girls are seeking out role models on social media, it becomes an even greater responsibility to ensure the information being made available to them is of some substance to better promote positive female experiences online. Being conductors of truth in the information we post and share is how we encourage a higher level of media literacy.

As a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, A’Lelia gives great attention to her research and fact finding. “I’ve watched how media has evolved over time” and regarding social media as a news source, “I am really conscious of the source and who is writing and broadcasting the articles,” she says.

The amount of misinformation and its intentional spread concerns her due to the dissension it creates. For A’Lelia, these practices are what make her work all the more essential. In sharing Madam Walker’s story, she is continuing a legacy of empowering women to be independent and to come together as a community to support one another, which is what she feels Madam Walker would be most proud of her for.

With a passion for preserving stories that matter, she again focuses on her own family for her fifth book project about her own namesake, A’Lelia Walker. Known for her glamorous lifestyle and throwing legendary parties in Harlem, welcoming impressive and diverse company, A’Lelia Walker’s life provides a great deal of material. The book title will be taken from a moniker given to A’Lelia’s great-grandmother by famous poet, Langston Hughes, The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance. “This book about A’Lelia Walker is the last major biography that I’m going to write,” A’Lelia states, “because these books take more than a decade to work on.” Once the book is finished, she will continue to write and speak about the notable women of her family, just on a smaller scale.

To learn more about the inspiring life of Madam C.J. Walker and A’Lelia Bundles’ work, go to aleliabundles.com. There, you can order On Her Own Ground and share it with a young woman in your life, encouraging an appreciation for the past and the potential of her own biography-worthy future. Z