Madam C. J. Walker's gospel of giving :

Title :

Madam C. J. Walker's gospel of giving : black women's philanthropy during Jim Crow / Tyrone McKinley Freeman ; foreword by A'Lelia Bundles .

Title:

Madam C. J. Walker's gospel of giving :

Author:

Freeman, Tyrone McKinley, 1973-

Format:

Books

Series:

The new black studies series

Physical Description:

278 pages ; 24 cm.

ISBN:

9780252043451

9780252085352

Production / Publication Information:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2020.

Summary:

"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"--

Bibliography note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Language:

English

Personal Subject:

Walker, C. J., Madam, 1867-1919.

Subject Term:

African American women executives -- Biography.

Women philanthropists -- United States -- Biography.

Cosmetics industry -- United States -- History.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library	361.74 FRE	31330008979449	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	338.7 FRE	31990004927401	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Winner of the AFP/Skystone Partners Prize for Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy, Association of Fundraising Professionals, 2021 Terry McAdam Book Award, given by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management 2023 Peter Dobkin Hall History of Philanthropy Prize from the Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

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.

Reviews (3)

Booklist Review

Set against the historical contexts of Black advancement and Black social organizations, this biography of entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker furthers readers' understanding of an impressive woman, and of Black women's philanthropy at large. Noting that historians tend not to deeply examine Walker's philanthropy, philanthropic-studies professor Freeman centers it here, taking an intersectional view through lenses of race, class, and gender. Freeman defines Black philanthropy as rooted in a "collective consciousness" through the shared experience of oppression: a transformative method of racial uplift wherein Black people became strategic agents of philanthropy instead of its distressed recipients. Meticulously researched using primary sources, the book is peppered with letters between Walker and her lawyer. Engaging narrative accounts of her exchanges with famous Black leaders characterize her as savvy and undaunted. Walker's detailed legacy is celebrated: she established a still-thriving Black beauty industry, legitimized beauty credentials as a form of industrial education to improve Black women's economic independence, and nurtured education as central to Black self-help. In this well-argued piece of scholarship, Freeman carves out valuable insights into Black history.Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020

Choice Review

Drawing heavily on the archives of Madam C. J. Walker, the famous Black hair care entrepreneur of the late 19th and early 20th century, Freeman (philanthropic studies, Indiana Univ.) has produced a unique study and argument that refutes popular and historiographical exceptionalist notions of the famous businesswoman. "Walker was not simply a charitable entrepreneur," Freeman writes, "but rather a great African American and American philanthropist who practiced a distinctive racialized and gendered approach to giving that simultaneously relieved immediately felt needs in her community and thwarted the systemic oppression of the Jim Crow regime" (p. 7). Walker was born Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana in 1867 to parents who were formerly enslaved. St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Denver, and finally Indianapolis were the stops on her journey through life, which culminated in her successful ownership of a company whose corporate model in large part embraced the model of contemporary Black fraternal orders. Freeman's six chapters--"Making Madam C. J. Walker," "Opportunity," "Education," "Activism," "Material Resources," and "Legacy"--reflect his argument for a new appreciation of the evolution and challenges in the making of Walker's model. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. --Philip F. Rubio, North Carolina A&T State University

Library Journal Review

Freeman (philanthropic studies, Indiana Univ.) debuts with an in-depth biography of Madam C.J. Walker (1867--1919), famous for being the first woman in the United States to become a self-made millionaire. Born Sarah Breedlove to enslaved parents in rural Louisiana, Walker was placed in the care of an older sister after her parents died when she was a child. Freeman takes care to acknowledge and fill in gaps in the historical record surrounding the life of Black people during early Reconstruction. The author follows Walker as she, her sister, and brother-in-law move to Mississippi to flee nearby lynchings and find work; it is here, as Freeman narrates, that Walker becomes a washerwoman. Freeman excels at writing an accessible narrative of time and place, continuing as Walker gets married, has a daughter, and becomes a widow in a short span of time. From there, she moves to St. Louis, getting involved in local church communities, marrying Charles Walker, and ultimately building a legacy by creating a hair care empire specific to the needs of Black women. Through it all, Freeman shows the challenges Black women faced in obtaining education and pursing business ventures. VERDICT A tremendous biography and a great study of philanthropy that will have strong YA crossover appeal.--Cicely Douglas, South Sioux City P.L., NE