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Ben Neihart.
Rough Amusements: The True Story of A'Lelia Walker,
Patroness of the Harlem Renaissance's Down-Low Culture.
2003
Tananarive Due.
The Black Rose: The Dramatic Story of Madam C.J. Walker,
America's First Black Female Millionaire. 2001
A'Lelia Bundles.
On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J.
Walker. 2002
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A'Lelia McWilliams
Walker
(1885-1931)
Corporate Executive & Arts
Supporter
Lelia McWilliams (1885-1931)--
born in Vickburg, Mississippi -- was a patron to the so-called "black
literati" of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. She was
the only child of Madam C. J. Walker, who abandoned by Lelia father's became a washerwoman but later an
inventor and famously wealthy as result of her hair-care
business.
When her mother died in 1919, Walker
inherited the business and the lavish family estate, Villa
Lewaro, in Irvington, New York. She hosted parties in
her "Dark Tower" and entertained such
writers as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Jean
Toomer, and other writers.
Her regal African beauty,
lavish clothing, and glamorous lifestyle, inspired singers,
poets, and sculptors. Langston Hughes called her the "joy
goddess of Harlem's 1920's"; Zora Neale Hurston outlined a
play about her and her mother; and Carl Van Vechten based his
Nigger Heaven character, Adora Boniface, on her.
Her grandparents were former slaves who were forced into
sharecropping. Her father was Moses McWilliams. She married a man named Robinson
(divorced, 1914); married Wiley Wilson, (a doctor), 1919
(marriage ended); married James Arthur Kennedy (a doctor), early
1920s (divorced, 1931). In 1912 she adopted named Mae Bryant
Perry
Walker grew up in St. Louis, Mo., and attended Knoxville
College in Tennessee before going to work for her mother, Madame
Walker. She helped her
mother found The Mme. C. J. Walker Mfg. Co. in 1905. From 1908
to 1914 she managed the Pittsburgh branch of her mother's hair-care
product empire and also oversaw Lelia College, a school
of cosmetology run by the company and became manager of the
Walker College of Hair Culture, New York City and opened
its New York office and beauty salon in 1913. Upon Madam
Walker's death in 1919, A'Lelia Walker became president of the
company.
Her interest in Africa led her in 1922 to become one of
the only westerners to visit Ethiopian Empress Waizeru Zauditu.
She also too a trip to South America. Some upperclass Harlemites snubbed her for being the daughter of a
washerwoman, though Madame Walker was the country's first
female self-made American millionaire. Privately,
elitist lighter-skinned blacks dismissed Walker as "the
Mahogany Millionairess." In addition, Walker was also quite tolerant of gays
within her society. Grace Nail Johnson, the wife of
novelist James Weldon Johnson and grand dame of
Harlem society, was one of those who were pleased that she never
crossed the
threshold of Walker's residences nor The Dark Tower.
As the decade of the 20s ended A'Lelia, as she came to name
herself, the joy of life and alcohol began to take its toll on her six-foot frame. The parties came
to an end with the onset of the Great Depression in
1929. The dark Tower was close in 1930. Antiques and
luxuries were auctioned. On August 16, 1931, in the early
morning after hosting a birthday party for a friend A'Lelia
Walker expired. Hers was a memorable funeral.
Harlem turned out for Walker's funeral. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. eulogized her; college
founder Mary McLeod Bethune spoke of the legacy left by both
Walker and her mother, and Langston Hughes contributed a poem,
"To A'Lelia," which read, in part: "So all who
love laughter/And joy and light,/Let your prayers be as
roses/For this queen of the night."
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update 7 October 2007 |
