A'Lelia Walker: A Study

A detailed Summary of A'Lelia Walker: A Study

A'Lelia Walker was one of the most interesting figures of the Harlem Renaissance. As a young heiress to a substantial fortune from her mother and first successful Negro entrepreneur, A'Lelia Walker set the stage where all the important figures of the Harlem Renaissance came to play. Walker used her fortune to entertain lavishly during the Harlem Renaissance, and became one of its most beloved and well-known insiders. In more ways than one, she became the bright little center that the rest of the art and literary world crowded around. Walker's circle of friends included poet Langston Hughes, writer Countee Cullen, and music critic, photographer and novelist Carl Van Vechten. She was pivotal in getting black artists and writers "noticed" by the right people, even though she was not one of them.

Walker was born Lelia McWilliams on June 6, 1885, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, daughter of Sarah Breedlove and Moses McWilliams. Sarah worked as a washerwoman and raised Lelia alone after McWilliams disappeared. Lelia was no more than eighteen when her mother remarried and changed her name to Madam C. J. Walker. She founded a line of hair-care products in St. Louis, Missouri, apparently inspired by a dream in which a large black man

This heady lifestyle of hers continued throughout the 1920s. In 1923 Walker turned her impresario skills towards her daughter's wedding, orchestrating both the event and choosing the groom. While Mae was dreadfully miserable during the wedding, her dress drew "gasps of admiration" as she moved slowly down the aisle. A'Lelia considered this event one of the biggest advertisements the business has ever had, aside from the Villa Lewaro, and it was considered the most extravagant and wonderful wedding of the Harlem Renaissance. Unfortunately the couple did not last, and they were separated by 1926. In 1927 A'Lelia announced her intention to begin a salon, where literally starving artists might dine cheaply on one floor, enjoy the literary works of other Harlem authors in a private library on the next, and pass through an art gallery on another. To do this, she gave up her home on 136th Street and moved into another apartment on Edgecombe Avenue. She tried desperately to organize a group of investors with deep pockets to fund the creation of this salon, but negotiations often broke down as a result of drinking too much bootleg liquor. Disheartened by this defeat, Walker decided to lower her sights somewhat and open a restaurant-type club instead. She converted a pair of apartments her mother owned into a lush salon, decorated by one of Manhattan's top designers, Paul Frankel. It was filled with all the posh amenities: gold wallpaper, an enormous bookcase, and two gigantic framed poems on the wall: "The Weary Blues," by Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen's "The Dark Tower," also the name of a famous column he wrote at the time and the name Walker chose to give her salon.

provided her with a secret formula that would straighten black hair. After briefly attending Tennessee's Knoxville College, Lelia joined her mother in the family business, which by 1908 had become extremely successful. At the age of 23, Lelia was head of the company's Pittsburgh office, and oversaw both the branch and Lelia College, the cosmetology-training center her mother had named after her. In 1912 Lelia adopted a daughter, Mae.

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Approximate Word count = 2052
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts