The Book Was Better: Self Made
The Book Was Better: 5 Books to Read After Watching Self Made
You watched the movie, or the television show, or limited series. Now it is time to read the book.
1 - On Her Own Ground- The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles
The Book Was Better: 5 Books to Read After Watching Self Made
From the publisher:
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Sarah Breedlove—who would become known as 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 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.
2 - The Black Rose: A Novel by Tananarive Due
The Book Was Better: 5 Books to Read After Watching Self Made
From the publisher:
Born to former slaves on a Louisiana plantation in 1867, Madam C.J. Walker rose from poverty and indignity to become America’s first black female millionaire, the head of a hugely successful beauty company, and a leading philanthropist in African American causes. Renowned author Alex Haley became fascinated by the story of this extraordinary heroine, and before his death in 1992, he embarked on the research and outline of a major novel based on her life. With The Black Rose, critically acclaimed writer Tananarive Due brings Haley’s work to an inspiring completion.
Blending documented history, vivid dialogue, and a sweeping fictionalized narrative, Tananarive Due paints a vivid portrait of this passionate and tenacious pioneer and the unforgettable era in which she lived.
3 - Madam C.J. Walker Builds a Business (A Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls Chapter Book) by Rebel Girls and Salini Perera
The Book Was Better: 5 Books to Read After Watching Self Made
From the publisher:
From the world of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls comes a story based on the real life of Madam C. J. Walker, America’s first female self-made millionaire.
Sarah is the first person in her family who wasn’t born into slavery in Delta, Louisiana. But being free doesn’t mean that Sarah doesn’t have to work. She cooks, she cleans, she picks cotton, she does laundry, and she babysits. And when she works, she wraps up her hair.
One day, Sarah’s hair starts to fall out! It’s itchy, crunchy, patchy, and won’t grow. Instead of giving up, Sarah searches for the right products. And then she invents something better than any shampoo or hair oil she’s used before. Her hair grows and grows! That’s when she decides to rebrand herself as “Madam C. J. Walker,” and begins her business empire.
Madam C. J. Walker Builds a Business is the story of a leader in the hair care industry, but it’s also an inspiring tale about the importance of empowering women to become economically independent.
This historical fiction chapter book includes additional text on Madam C. J. Walker’s lasting legacy, as well as educational activities designed to encourage entrepreneurship.
4 - All About Madam C.J. Walker (All About...) by A'Lelia Bundles and Kirsten Halvorsen
The Book Was Better: 5 Books to Read After Watching Self Made
From the publisher:
Madam C. J. Walker was a self made millionaire who was beloved within her community for her philanthropy, and respected as a first rate business person. She was America’s first female self-made millionaire and one of the most successful African American business owners ever.
Born Sarah Breedlove, she was the first person born free in her family. She married Charles Joseph Walker and became known as Madam C. J. Walker, the name she would later use on her haircare products.
After talking with her brothers, who were barbers, and experiencing problems with hair loss, she developed a formula that healed scalp infections. This inspired her to start her own line of hair care products to do things like reduce dandruff, grow longer hair, smooth hair, or prevent baldness. Her company employed thousands of door-to-door saleswomen from all over the United States and the Caribbean.
She supported the African American community by making a significant contribution for a new YMCA building in Indianapolis, funding scholarships for the Tuskegee Institute and Daytona Normal Institute for Girls, and becoming a patron of the arts in the early years of the Harlem Renaissance.
Her hair care products are still produced today by Sephora and her story was the inspiration to the Netflix series Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker and the adult biography On Her Own Ground, both also written by Madam C.J. Walker’s great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles.
5 - Madam C. J. Walker's Gospel of Giving by Tyrone McKinley Freeman (coming October 2020)
The Book Was Better: 5 Books to Read After Watching Self Made
From the publisher:
Founder of a beauty empire, Madam C. J. Walker was celebrated as America's first self-made female millionaire in the early 1900s. Known as a leading African American entrepreneur, Walker was also devoted to an activist philanthropy aimed at empowering African Americans and challenging the injustices inflicted by Jim Crow.
Tyrone McKinley Freeman's biography highlights how giving shaped Walker's life before and after she became wealthy. Poor and widowed when she arrived in St. Louis in her twenties, Walker found mentorship among black churchgoers and working black women. Her adoption of faith, racial uplift, education, and self-help soon informed her dedication to assisting black women's entrepreneurship, financial independence, and activism. Walker embedded her philanthropy in how she grew her business, forged alliances with groups like the National Association of Colored Women, funded schools and social service agencies led by African American women, and enlisted her company's sales agents in local charity and advocacy work.
Illuminating and dramatic, Madam C. J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving broadens our understanding of black women’s charitable giving and establishes Walker as a foremother of African American philanthropy.
