Awakening A’Lelia Walker

A’Lelia Walker Inscribed 1926 James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection This photograph of A’Lelia Walker in her typical sumptuous attire is inscribed, “Sincerely Yours, A’Lelia Walker, April 1926.”

She traversed the world and gazed her brown eyes on the pyramids of Egypt, saw the coronation of a pope in Rome, and was in the company of the Ethiopian Empress Waizeru. The colorful history of A’Lelia Walker has been graciously shared with me by her great-granddaughter and biographer A’Lelia Bundles. A’Lelia Bundles, who has already published a biography of Madam C.J. Walker, has researched the lovely yet obscured historical figure A’Lelia Walker. In her research, Bundles found that A’Lelia Walker even had the privilege of a private showing in Paris at Cartier. She was indeed the crème de la crème of high society in the early twentieth century. If A’Lelia Walker had a bucket list of places to see, people to meet, or things to do, I’m not sure there would be much left on it before her passing on August 16, 1931. On the eve of her passing, A’Lelia feasted on lobster, chocolate cake, and drank champagne in celebration of a close friends’ birthday. If there was ever a way to bow gracefully from this Earth, perhaps A’Lelia provides the example of spending one’s last moments with friends and fine foods to conclude a lavish and exciting life.

As a daughter to the United States’ first self-made female millionaire Madam C. J. Walker, A’Lelia was exposed to first-class living but also the dedication required to attain it. Before enjoying the fruits of years of labor in marketing Madam C.J. Walker’s hair products then running the Denver and Pittsburgh office of Madam’s hair empire, A’Lelia who was born with the name Lelia, had resided in St. Louis’ poorer neighborhoods during her youth. There, A’Lelia was entrenched in the sounds of ragtime music. A’Lelia’s mother Madam Walker was a member of the St. Louis A.M.E. choir and sent A’Lelia to school with teachers educated at the liberal Oberlin University. According to A. Bundles’ research on A’Lelia Walker, A’Lelia’s teachers were trained in opera music and hence their students were surrounded with the sound of music in their studies. The life and legacy of A’Lelia Walker is found in the poems and writings of Harlem Renaissance writers. The dedication and appreciation to the arts that we find in A’Lelia’s later years was perhaps germinated by this early engagement in lyrical expression in St. Louis.

Though money was not an object for A’Lelia, she suffered against the same plight that women for generations to come will face. Throughout her life, A’Lelia was unlucky in love and true was her labor for it. Against her deceased mothers’ wishes, A’Lelia married the exciting and “bad boy” Wiley Wilson. Mr. Wilson was a physician and so may have been somewhat entitled or arrogant. After living a life standing in the shadow of Madam’s success, enduring criticism for not being exactly like Madam, and no doubt being criticized by Madam herself, A’Lelia gave her hand to Wiley in marriage. Perhaps this was a sign of her determining her own destiny. Unfortunately, of all times A’Lelia may have decided not to heed mother’s precious pearls of wisdom, she chose the one that would lead to another disappointment. A’Lelia had to juggle the transitions of the Walker enterprise, a new marriage, and she also had to dedicate effort to Lelia College. Spread thin, A’Lelia tried to use her abundant funds to retain the affections of Wiley but sadly learned that “money can’t buy love.” He had an open affair with another woman after A’Lelia’s purchase of a four story building on Seventh Avenue for his medical practice. A’Lelia must have been embarrassed by his crude and lewd affair and the two separated in 1921 just two years after they married. Although the two did not remain together til ‘death due them part’, Wiley and A’Lelia remained friends.

The separation, loss of her mother, and burden of business affairs inundated A’Lelia and with the means to do so, she gave her self a five month long break to travel Europe. From the time of her arrival, A’Lelia was the talk of the town. Bejeweled with priceless pieces and adorned in a most regal manner, A’Lelia turned heads abroad. In her travels, she sparked old flames with her former love interest and mother approved husband, Dr. James Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy, too, was a physician and in letters to A’Lelia, he was somewhat of a wordsmith as he wrote sweet words as “I think of the whole Europe in terms of you…” In April of 1922, Kennedy and A’Lelia decided to get married after she returned from Europe. The distance factor came in to play as A’Lelia resided in Harlem and Kennedy in Chicago. Originally, the two would make the distance work but as Kennedy’s profession moved him to Tuskegee, the distance worked on them. Time and again, Kennedy was to accompany A’Lelia to New York societal events and holidays and didn’t prove to be a man of his word. Yet again, A’Lelia had been foiled by love.

A’Lelia was what the black community of Harlem needed at the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance. Local artists, writers, and poets had the talent, and A’Lelia had the money to fund their endeavors. Harlem had become a hot spot during the early 1920’s as prohibition was in full throttle in the U.S. Whites and black alike traversed to Harlem for the promises of literary delight, fine liquor, and a good time. A’Lelia was quite the hostess and attracted the likes of royal company and anybody who was anybody got invited to A’Lelia’s Harlem home. In 1927, A’Lelia opened the Dark Tower which was to be a meeting for artisans in Harlem to display their talent. As described by A’Lelia Walker, it was a “rendezvous.”The guests of A’Lelia were not accustomed to paying for her company and the brink of a Great Depression, her high prices were too high to attract the crowd she wanted. A’Lelia would later rent the Dark Tower for private parties and other events as it was indeed a splendid venue.

Signature reads: My admirable friend Carl van Vechten A'Lelia Walker

Steadfast by A’Lelia’s side was Mayme White. These two women were close as their parents had known each other for years. Mayme was a trained musician from Oberlin and would have for sure secured the attention of A’Lelia. The two women lived together and at her funeral, A’Lelia wore on her ring finger a ring given to her by Mayme. In the research of A’Lelia Bundles, she has discovered that A’Lelia Walker was once engaged to Mayme’s brother.

For all the two did not have in common in terms of entrepreneurship and business saavy, A’Lelia was an even match with her mother Madam Walker in her spirit of charity. Neither of the Walker women hoarded their wealth for themselves. As Madam sought to create jobs for black women, A’Lelia sought to pay tribute to the arts while also securing the success of the East Coast sales agents and New York office.  A’Lelia Walker has been obscured in the study of black history and women’s history. As we awaken the memory of A’Lelia Walker, we find that she was a fashion icon of the luxury life in her time. She was perfectly imperfect in love and business but she was all the better of an art appreciator for it.

A’Lelia had the blessing of being rich enough to afford anything her heart desired. She is not always remembered so fondly. Some studiers of history infer that Madam created an empire and A’Lelia let it fall apart as Madam’s lavish Irvington-on-the Hudson home was sold. In my meeting with A’Lelia Bundles, she goes into further detail by describing that the will of Madam C.J. Walker left instructions that the home be donated to the N.A.A.C.P. after the death of A’Lelia. This home was sold by the Walker Estate to settle debt. Though if Madam lived to talk about A’Lelia, she would’ve embraced her daughters’ other contributions to society in ways besides preserving the Walker Empire. She is noted by her close friend and confidant Langston Hughes as a “gorgeous dark Amazon”.

Gravesite of A'Lelia & Madam C.J. Walker at Woodlawn Cemetary in the Bronx, NY

She lives in the literary works of Carl van Vechten, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, and George Schuyler whose novels have characters that use A’Lelia as inspiration. Her death pulled the curtain down on the Harlem Renaissance and the black community laid to rest its first genuine heiress whose efforts helped to fund some of the literary movement artists that we still study in the present-day.

I render a sincerest gratitude and special thanks to A’Lelia Bundles, the great-granddaughter and biographer of A’Lelia Walker and great-great daughter and biographer of Madam C.J. Walker. Both Walker women are two of history’s most fascinating black women. A’Lelia Bundles graciously gave of her time to provide information that I would not have had otherwise to compile this piece. A’Lelia Bundles also facilitated in editing this article. She is currently completing a biography of A’Lelia Walker. “On Her Own Ground”, biography of Madam Walker is available for sale at her website: www.madamcjwalker.com. You may also recognize A’Lelia Bundles as she featured in Chris Rock’s movie “Good Hair.” For a list of events and book signings of A’Lelia Bundles, please click here: A’Lelia Bundles Events

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