The Black Rose: The Magnificent Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's First Black Female Millionaire.

The Black Rose: The Magnificent Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's First Black Female Millionaire

by Tananarive Due Ballantine/One World, June 2000, $25.95, ISBN 0-345-43960-0

History is a tangible, living thing in Tananarive Due's new book, based on research begun by Alex Haley. Due traces the life of Madam C.J. Walker from her childhood to the development of her famous hair products and her subsequent ascension to wealth and prominence.

The book opens in 1874 in Delta, Louisiana, on the plantation where Walker's parents were sharecroppers. We are introduced to 10-year-old Sarah Breedlove, as she was called before she took the name Madam C.J. Walker. Due paints a portrait of the Breedloves as a loving black family who, despite the hardships they face, thoroughly support and enjoy one another. But too soon the family crumbles when Sarah's parents die suddenly and she and her older sister, Louvenia, are left to fend for themselves. On the heels of this tragedy they move to Vicksburg, Mississippi, the nearest town, where they begin to take in laundry to survive.

With an abundance of detail, Due reconstructs a rich and palpable historical world. The story moves slowly as we follow Sarah and Louvenia from one hardship to the next. Several years later, each sister marries. Sarah loses her first husband and is left to raise her daughter, Lelia, on her own. It is during this period that the itchy scalp with which Sarah has been afflicted since she was a child begins to worsen and she loses much of her hair. Sarah and Lelia begin to work on creating a hair formula in attempts to relieve Sarah's condition.

In 1904, after hearing Booker T. Washington speak, Sarah is inspired to go into business for herself. A few months later, Sarah perfects the recipe for her hair formula and begins doing hair-straightening demonstrations with a hot steel comb that was given to her by one of her washing clients. Sarah's business starts to grow, with a steady stream of clients who want their hair straightened and a portion of her scalp formula, which she dishes out in tin cups.

Due does a wonderful job of depicting Breedlove's courtship and marriage to Denver businessman Charles J. Walker, the growth of their business, and the struggles that often accompany success. The wealth for which she is known and celebrated comes with a great many sacrifices for Madam Walker, including that of her marriage and a harried work schedule that leaves her little time to enjoy her accomplishments and compromises her health. Walker also feels increasingly divided between the old Sarah--who yearns to use the word "ain't" and wear the "threadbare cotton dresses" in which she grew comfortable in her early years--and the public Madam Walker who must practice her diction and is determined to do all she can to make life better for her people. Although admirers surround her, Due successfully imparts the very modern sense Walker has that there is no one in her life who really knows her.

Throughout the book, Due feeds all of the reader's senses, filling her story with rich detail that helps to place the reader in Walker's time while providing an intimate look at black life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Too often our African American heroes and heroines are placed on pedestals--far out of reach. Through The Black Rose, Due presents an opportunity to experience the life of a well-known historical figure and to make an intimate connection between our collective past and our lives and struggles in the here and now.

Natasha Tarpley is the author of Girl in the Mirror: Three Generations of Black Women in Motion. She lives in New York City.