Little-Known Black History Fact: A’Lelia Walker

A’Lelia Walker, born Leila McWilliams, was a visionary of the Harlem Renaissance who kept the legacy of her mother – Madam CJ Walker – alive. The daughter of the first black female millionaire took over her mother’s business in 1919 after her death. Nicknamed the “joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s,” the socialite was known for her elaborate parties with the who’s who of New York.
Walker lived in the shadow of her mother’s grand life. She searched for her own identity through the support of the Harlem Renaissance. Walker used her mother’s fortune to finance the work of artists, writers and publishers, throwing lavish parties to connect them to one another for projects. Her New York townhome, nicknamed The Dark Tower, was where she held many of her talk-of-the-town shindigs, and Villa Levaro, her country home in Westchester County, was another location for Walker’s extravagant events.
Born Lelia McWilliams to Moses McWilliams and Sarah Breedlove (Madame CJ Walker), Walker never knew her biological father, who passed away when she was two years old. The St. Louis, Missouri native attended Knoxville College in Tennessee, changing her name to A’Lelia along the way. She was raised around the sound of ragtime and St. Louis’ Market Street.
After she took over the Madame CJ Walker Manufacturing Company, Walker attached herself to the Harlem Renaissance, becoming the subject of an outline by Zora Neale Hurston, Carl Van Vechten and Langston Hughes.
Walker married three times, adopting Fairy Mae Bryant, also known as Mae Walker, in 1912. Her daughter served as a model and assistant.
In August 1931, Walker passed away from the same thing that killed her mother: A cerebral brain hemorrhage caused by hypertension. Thousands attended her funeral, with an elaborate flower-dropping ceremony by a small Black Eagle airplane.
When A’Lelia Walker passed, Hughes called it the end of the Harlem Renaissance.

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show