On Her Own Ground

Now a Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer, Self Made (formerly titled On Her Own Ground) is the first full-scale biography of ';one of the great success stories of American history' (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Madam C.J. Walkerthe legendary African American entrepreneur and philanthropistby her great-great-granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles.The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Sarah Breedlovewho would become known as Madam C. J. Walkerwas 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. Thenwith the discovery of a revolutionary hair care formula for black womeneverything 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.