On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker (Lisa Drew Books (Paperback))

She was the daughter of slaves, married at 14, a widow with a baby daughter at 20. But, by the time that she was 40, Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) was making as much money as a white corporate executive, thanks to her popular hair-care products for black women and her brilliance at marketing them. She created a workforce of sales agents that gave African American women job options other than being washerwomen or domestics. As her prominence and wealth increased, she became a generous benefactor of black educational institutions, and such a staunch supporter of the antilynching movement that the State Department labeled her a "race agitator" and denied her a passport in 1919. Yet, she had plenty of time for fun, too; she built a lavish mansion (near John D. Rockefeller's) in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, and her daughter Lelia entertained the Harlem Renaissance elite in a spectacular Manhattan townhouse that was renovated with revenues from the company's New York branch. Author A'Lelia Bundles, a veteran television journalist and Madam Walker's descendant, reminds us that controversy over straightened hair has raged within the black community for a century, and that the businesswoman insisted that her aim never was to "de-kink" her customers' tresses, but instead to "grow" them through proper care, frequent washing, and improved nutrition. Bundles seamlessly weaves together her great-great-grandmother's remarkable personal odyssey with the broader outlines of African American struggle in the early 20th century, to create a colorful biography that's also a fascinating social history. --Wendy Smith