Self-Made: A TV Series Review

“Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”-Madam CJ Walker

Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker is a Netflix Original Series. Starring Academy Award winner Octavia Spence is casted in a powerful way to reintroduce the world to the life of Madam CJ Walker. I briefly remember hearing stories about her growing up as I was getting my hair done and learning how to take care of my textured hair. What Walker did not only for black women changed their lives, but also the livelihood of all black Americans. 

Spencer (Hidden Figures) shined in this series as she showed how Walker, then known as Sarah Breedlove, came from humble and pitiful beginnings to a self-made millionaire. We start with Sarah having immense bald patches and Addie Monroe helping to save her hair and change her life. What the series did not show was that originally Sarah had worked for Addie played by the versatile Carmen Ejogo (Sally Hemings: An American Scandal), not just as a laundress but as a saleswoman. She sold Monroe’s hair grower products. In real life, Monroe is Annie Malone. I included information at the end of this review about her life as a businesswoman. 

Sarah changed some of the ingredients in Monroe’s hair grower including the odious sulfur smell. Sarah wanted to make the product her own. In fact, according to A’Lelia Bundles (the great-great granddaughter of Walker) that other people before Malone came along had their own version of hair grower. Malone, when she met Sarah, was already a well off and famous cosmetician in her own right. 

Once Sarah had her own product in line, she became more confident; her daughter from her first marriage A’Lelia played by Tiffany Haddish (Night School) became her mother’s guinea pig in the series on the product. Sarah remarried again and this time to a CJ Walker who was an ad man as they were called. CJ, played by veteran Blair Underwood, helped enhance every scene he was in as his character helped to create Sarah’s empire. His dynamic with Spencer showed the enjoyment of being famous, the stress, struggle of beginnings, but also his frustrations. Blair brought to the scene what a black man in his predicament in that time frame would experience but really pulled out the stops as the series went further. CJ Walker’s ads created a fervor for Sarah’s products.  His father Cleophus played by Garrett Morris was the extra soul and laughter needed for this series. He offered wisdom and heart to every scene he was in.

Sarah became Madam CJ Walker as her fame grew and products became more affordable. Of course, in the series she had to show how hard it was to be a rival to Addie Monroe and gain the public’s trust. She learned how to sway the crowds and put her stories into her selling. If you put your personal story a bit into what you sell, people will be moved. In one scene where she was trying to convince the women to buy her products, she asked how they felt about their hair. One woman answered that places wouldn’t hire her because she wasn’t the right look. Madam Walker invited her to do her hair for her free of charge. I won’t forget the lines that followed “I know what it is like to not have running water or have products made for us. But most importantly, I know if she look good, we all look good. If you look respectable, we all look respectable. Everything we do as Negros reflects back on us. So if I am helping one person, I’m lifting us all up.”  

By Madam Walker stating this last line, lifting us all up, she did just that. In 1910, she and her family moved to Indianapolis where countless blacks were moving to make their future better. Imagine it was a smaller version of NYC’s Harlem. Madam Walker had also hired her own Walker girls who helped sell her hair products such as hair grower, Glossine (pressing oil), shampoos, soaps, and expanded opening hair salons. Women learned how hygiene made their hair not just shine, but to make their hair look good. Walker made women feel not only beautiful, but gave them their confidence back. Confidence to shine, be bold and learn to work for not only their family, but for themselves. What woman in that day and age without the age of computers was able to reach out to a mass audience? She had the media to begin with and she and her family traveled door to door in the south to make her product and presence known. She still went toe to toe with Annie Malone and both women competed to be better than one another with their products, factories, salons, colleges and working with the community. 

Madam Walker was as bold to even approach famed Booker T. Washington and speak on the stage uninvited. She gained attention not just among the women, but the men present as well. Booker was not pleased with her audacity, but the series doesn’t show what happened a year later between the two of them.  She wanted to make her voice herald because she provided jobs not only to the women, but the men as well. Walker did not forget where she came from; being an orphan of two sharecroppers on the plantation they were freed from, to being a laundress to an entrepreneur. Walker provided for the community; as she grew in fame and riches, so did her community. She was a philanthropist and donated to various causes as she built her empire. Madam Walker donated $1,000 to the colored YMCA  and gave more of herself to her community in her lifetime. As she grew to fame, her marriage dwindled, but she kept moving on with life. Her manager and lawyer Freeman Ransom played by Kevin Carroll (Till) was in her corner every step of the way. He believed in her and she wanted to do better for black Americans. He made sure she met the right people and had investments from the right companies.

Madam Walker’s daughter A’Lelia was entrusted in the series to branch out to NYC and open a salon in Harlem.  Harlem was just beginning to grow into its Renaissance. The socialite and party life is where A’Lelia wanted to be; the center of attention but to also be connected with the brightest and best stars in the country no matter the race. She also built her own entertainment spot dubbed The Dark Tower where she lavished in style with the best; she was a patron to many artists and friends with iconic figures such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois and Carl Van Vetchen. NYC during the Roaring 20s was the place to be and A’Lelia picked the best place and time. Soon Madam CJ Walker moved her HQ to NYC and bought a house in New York dubbed the Villa Lewaro; this was created by Vertner Tandy who was the first black New York architect. The opulent home boasts 34 bedrooms and the property is so large, her neighbor J. D. Rockerfeller was 5 miles away (not next door as depicted in the series).

Although there were several historical inaccuracies in this film, you can read the article written by A’Lelia Bundles, which gives more details and insight into her family’s life and the process of creating Walker on screen. She gives due credit to Octavia Spencer who helped showcased and reached millions of people into the life of Walker. The hit Netflix series was based on Bundles’ biography she wrote about  Walker’s life entitled On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker.  You can purchase this book on Bookshop.org.

Kassi Lemmons, the director, was fabulous in putting together this series. Originally there were ten episodes that got whittled down to four, but she managed to make it work. Lemmons was able to show years of hard work and fit it into four episodes that showed grit, guts and all the glory. There is one thing that this show thrived on was music. As each scene changed the music of the early 1900s mixed with contemporary gusto had me enthralled. As Walker grew bolder in her expansion, the music also grew louder, bolder and more colorful. Even the more somber scenes worked right with the spectacular acting of the cast and shed more light onto Spencer’s characterization of Walker. 

As Sarah’s life came together, she left such a legacy that still impacted the community after her death. Before she died, she had another idea to create a building to bring all of Indianapolis together. She created the Walker Building which provided stores, salons, barbershops, and a theater. This theater was such a wide spectacle as blacks at the time had to still go to colored entrances and be seated in the balcony with very few spots. This place was an opportunity to bring shows most people never had a chance to see in their lifetime. This extraordinary place still exists now as the Madam Walker Legacy Center.

If you enjoy watching documentaries, you should watch the following  about the life of Madam CJ Walker and her daughter A’Lelia. Both women made their imprint on not only black Americans, but the future of society, especially women. Without their dedication to the arts, beauty, hair culture, activism, there wouldn’t be change as we have it today. PBS features online a documentary from the 1980s, entitled Indiana Legends Madam CJ Walker: Two Dollars and a Dream. This diverse documentary includes interviews from several people who personally knew and worked for Walker. Their interviews helped to give a better insight to how Madam CJ Walker changed the hair industry and the life of black Americans.

If you wish to read more into the life of Annie Malone you should read from the Annie Malone Historical Society and you will see she too was a millionaire and philanthropist. She created her own Poro College that was the forerunner of the cosmetology beauty school we know of today. The Amsterdam News wrote an article in 2018 about Annie and making her millions. This newspaper is a 113 year old business that is black owned. This means that in the heyday of both Annie and Sarah, they possibly could have reported on their rivalry. The National Museum of African American History and Culture showcases an interesting article about these two dominating women who helped shape the hair world culture for black Americans as we know of today. 

The legacy of Madam CJ Walker lives on today and you can still buy the hair products. The fact that after a century has gone by, her lasting moments have still touched the lives of everyone. Check out the Madam CJ Walker site and they included an article from the Black Enterprise that spoke of a historical Barbie Doll in honor of her. I also enjoyed a thorough article written by the Collectors Weekly that showcased her life and the life of black Americans as they built their way to creating a life to not be a stepping stone, but to be someone.

As a final quote from the series that I found poignant “Ain’t no reward without risk.” Sarah Breedlove, Madam CJ Walker took a risk, not only her personal life, but also to help her community. She believed in herself so much that she risked it all. That woman is someone who aspired to get out of her station in life and make it to be someone. Guinness World Record has declared that she is the first female self-made millionaire. Madam CJ Walker was someone a lot of women looked up to. I thank my lucky stars, I was reintroduced into this woman’s history and Octavia Spencer shined like the star she is. She helped show the way of humble beginnings, being bold as brass to get what she wanted to help lift other people up. Octavia in her own right is just a mirror in my opinion to Madam CJ Walker and she made sure that story was going to be remembered. 

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