On a shelf in our high school library was an Encyclopedia of African Americans. Dozens of people I was never taught about appeared before me. Politicians, inventors, explorers, businesspeople, soldiers, bankers, scientists — people who should have been a part of my everyday history education could be brought to life again — by nerdy actress Me. The more I learned about their achievements in the face of poverty and discrimination, the more I wanted others to know about them.
Of all of the incredible people on those pages, I found myself most enthralled with Sarah Breedlove, later known as Madam C. J. Walker, who made her fortune by creating hair and skin care products for African American women. I found myself defending her against my classmate’s opinion that Madam Walker wanted to “make Black women look White”. I told her that perhaps her goal was to make African American women look the best they could. I found out later that my assessment was correct and that Madam had faced that same criticism for most of her time in business. I had my first subject at last!
I researched. I visited her mansion in New York’s Millionaires Row. And I wrote the story of her life as Madam, a one-woman two-act play for myself. Madam was performed in front of an SRO (Standing Room Only) audience at the Helen Hayes Gallery of the National Theater in Washington, DC. It has since been performed in other parts of the Mid-Atlantic.
- D. M. Cross
