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Article: On Her Own Ground: the Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Journal of Southern History
- Article date:
- February 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Southern Historical Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By A'Lelia Bundles. (New York and other cities: Scribner, c. 2001. Pp. 415. $30.00, ISBN 0-684-82582-1.)
Madam C. J. Walker was nationally famous when she died in 1919. The black press in particular lauded her as a heroine of the race, relating a story that was probably familiar to many African Americans at the time. Born in 1867, the daughter of sharecropping parents, Walker worked for years as a laundress in St. Louis before discovering a talent for hair care and selling homemade beauty products to black women door-to-door. From modest beginnings Walker built a small cosmetics empire that included a factory and headquarters in Indianapolis, salons in several ...