When the life of CJ Walker, black hair legend, is told to us

It came to me one night, in a dream. Hair reflects beauty. Hair reflects our emotions. Hair reflects our heritage. They remind us of who we are, where we came from and where we are going. Hair is a force. You can’t imagine what it feels like to lose them. I feel like I was born to fight. I lost all hope, I gave up on my dreams. And that’s where I started to lose my hair. What was I going to become? I asked myself a thousand questions. If God doesn’t like ugliness, why did he give me life? Why has he given me so little beauty when the world is full of it? Then all of a sudden my whole life changed. These words are from Sarah Breedlove, better known as CJ Walker, the very one Netflix is ​​devoting a series to. To place her, CJ Walker is one of the first African-American women to be a millionaire. She got there by marketing hair products. In the Netflix series, her character is played by Octavia Spencer, a big name who won the 2012 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The colour of feelings, film written and directed by Tate Taylor.

Where the adventure begins

The first scenes of the series are striking. Sarah Breedlove meets Addie Munroe. The latter goes door to door to offer her hair balm intended to strengthen frizzy hair. Like many women of her time, Sarah Breedlove suffered from a scalp disease. Addie Munroe’s product called “Wonderful Hair Grower” turns out to be magical. In a few weeks, Sarah Breedlove regains good health for her hair. Her self-confidence too grew thanks to the care given to her by Addie Munroe. Laundromat and poor, Sarah nonetheless feels the will to be a part of Addie’s business. Problem: the businesswoman doesn’t want to. Never mind, Sarah Breedlove insists and, now Madame CJ Walker, she launches her own range of products. Beyond the rivalry that opposes her to Addie Munroe, she manages to chart her course and build a real empire in a racist and macho society. Daughter of former slaves, African-American, Madame CJ Walker has succeeded in realizing her “American dream”: she has become a millionaire.

The story of a lifetime

Sarah Breedlove, now Madame CJ Walker, was born on December 23, 1867 in Louisiana, United States, two years after the abolition of slavery. His parents who worked in the cotton fields died shortly after his birth. Married at 14, she became the mother of a little A’Lelia in June 1885. At 20, she found herself a widow. It is after marrying Charles Joseph Walker that she borrows the initials and the name which will serve as a trademark for her cosmetic products.

To sell her products, namely shampoos, pomades or even heated combs to straighten frizzy hair, Mrs. CJ Walker, like Addie, uses well-established sales techniques: door-to-door, gifts offered to customers, sales networks. Here she is at the head of a flourishing business that takes on the allure of an empire when, in 1919, she suddenly disappears in Irvington, New York. At 51, she left behind a famous cosmetics brand.

The Truncated Reality About Addie Munroe and CJ Walker

Since its release in March 2020, as the world plunged into confinement, the series Self Made, inspired by the book by CJ Walker’s descendant, A’Lelia Bundles, has been widely written about. Some accuse the giant Netflix of not having told the “real” story. In the midst of this debate, the story of Madame CJ Walker’s great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles, is a valuable contribution to better enter the world of the real Sarah Breedlove.

And here’s what she begins with: “Netflix was interested in the story of my ancestor, Madame CJ Walker, who overcame a lot of obstacles to build her empire. Black, woman and successful entrepreneur, she became a millionaire, which was unusual at the time! The series shows his career, his will to undertake, his courage and his daring. It also allows to be able to speak about the life of CJ Walker and to make it known. I insist on the fact that, to know more, you have to read my book, because it is impossible to tell a whole life in 4 episodes of 45 minutes! “The series cannot tell all the details, like the relationship she had with her brothers who were barbers and made it easier for her to understand the hair world,” continues A’Lelia Bundles.

Netflix tells about a reality that hasn’t always existed and paints an unflattering portrayal of certain characters, like that of Addie Munroe’s descendant, Annie Turnbo Malone, in the series. She is presented as a jealous woman, mean and desperate to make the business of her rival go down when she sees the success of Madame CJ Walker’s products. Sasha Turnbo denounced the lies circulating about her ancestor. “The character of Annie Turnbo Malone has nothing to do with Addie Munroe. She taught CJ Walker the business. Addie has opened many schools all over the world, in Saint-Louis, Chicago and New York, and has not stopped spreading her light. She is an iconic woman. ”

Comments A’Lelia confirms: “In fact, CJ Walker worked for Addie as a sales representative for a year and a half and sold her hair products. Addie is an important historical figure, philanthropist, and woman who has helped thousands of other black women integrate into society. She developed a successful business in Saint-Louis. Their rivalry is exaggerated! Revolutionary, Addie Munroe was notably the founder of Poro College in 1918, a cosmetics school open to African-American women. She became, like Mrs. CJ Walker, a millionaire, thanks to her hair balm. Addie simply made her fortune before the other.

“While working as a cook for a pharmacist in Denver, Mrs. CJ Walker refined the formula for her Wonderful Hair Grower, an ointment that was first developed a century earlier. The Netflix series is very inaccurate! “Says A’Lelia Bundles, before continuing:” Neither woman was the first to create this type of formula, based on petroleum jelly and sulfur. The remedy, which has been around for several centuries, was intended to cure severe scalp infections. ”

The rivalry between the two women is therefore largely “exaggerated”, according to A’Lelia. Especially since the American giant Netflix insisted on colorism, which made viewers jump. In the series, Addie Munroe is mixed race and refuses Madame CJ Walker to sell her products, on the pretext that she does not have the same skin color and that she does not represent her brand. “Addie Munroe was not Métis, as in the series. She was black. This conflict did not involve the color of skin, nor the superiority of one woman over another. Netflix has amplified this rivalry! There was no need for this fictional element to tell this story. ”

The relationship between Madame CJ Walker and Booker T. Washington

In the television series, the heroine evolves in a completely macho and misogynistic world. Only her husband supports her and helps her build and promote her business. She, who will stop at nothing, ends up meeting Booker T. Washington, a very influential black public figure. She seeks his support for him to invest in his factory. He disapproves of cosmetics and its success.

The fiction even goes much further. On screen, the character admits to preferring to see men succeed rather than women! An element that A’Lelia Bundles rectifies. “Actually, Booker T. Washington was a little annoyed, but he finally greeted his success appropriately. As for the mentions of oil mogul and wealthy businessman John D. Rockefeller, again, Netflix made it all up. The series features the meeting between the entrepreneur and the businessman, who are neighbors. However, A’Lelia Bundles assures him: “Mrs. CJ Walker has never met John D. Rockefeller. ”

Self Made contains fictitious material and ignores real facts

If Netflix shows the incredible professional success of Madame CJ Walker, she did not insist on her generosity. “Yet I gave my opinion throughout the writing process of the script. But some of my suggestions were ignored because the show wanted to add fictitious elements, ”says A’Lelia Bundles.

Throughout her life, CJ Walker, a woman philanthropist, regularly made donations to organizations fighting for the advancement of African-American rights. In Indianapolis, she financially supported African Americans in finding employment, accessing education, and accessing medical care. Activist, the business manager has not stopped denouncing injustices and discrimination against the African-American people by condemning the Jim Crow laws which imposed, among other things, segregation between blacks and whites in public places. “She was revolutionary for her time! She did a lot of advertising in black newspapers and opened beauty schools, ”adds her descendant. For her, the voice of CJ Walker continues to resonate with many African-Americans since the brand “Madam CJ Walker Beauty Culture” is still very successful. It is to keep alive the flame of Madame CJ Walker that A’Lelia Bundles, her descendant, also a journalist, tries to tell the “real” story on her website.


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