It was an honor to interview A’Lelia Bundles last week on Sistah’s Place Podcast. She left me feeling inspired and motivated to know more about my family history. A’Lelia said, “you don’t need a famous person in your family to write about your family.” Our ancestors help build this country on their backs, and we need to tell our family’s history through storytelling.
She gave me the confirmation that I needed to press forward to learn more about my family on both sides of the tree. A’Lelia is proud to write about her great-great-grandmother Madam CJ Walker. She has given us a glimpse inside of her family’s history that was not apart of our history books. I am excited for everyone to read her biography On Her On Grounds: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker. I am curious to find out how many women step out on faith to launch that business after they read and see the Madam CJ Walker story.
A’Lelia did speak at DC Talk, where she emphasized the importance of Black Family knowing their history that I strongly agree with her about family history, heritage, and documenting our family’s path. Though she holds many hats but owns her truth and said to write about your family story it is a part of our history. It is vitally essential that you know where you come from for you. We cannot depend on teachers in schools to tell us about us when, in fact, a lot of our real history have been left out of the history books. Write your family story so that generations after us will know about where and who we are. We should feel obligated to leave our legacy of knowledge about our family with our children and generations to come. It is time to bring back the storytelling that we saw on television series like “Roots” and when you went over to grandma’s house for holidays.
I was so excited when I got off the phone that I pulled out my previous family research from ten years ago to see where I need to pick up and made a few notes about what I was missing. Even though there is a lot of questions, missing timelines, and follow up calls that I will need to make will be worth the journey to writing about my mom’s side and my dad’s side of the family.
When you are so super excited about knowing your lineage that you order my heritage DNA test with access to billions of records on myheritage.com. Later, I sat down, started drawing family tree boxes on a blank piece of paper filing in what I knew and leaving the rest for research and family interviews. I found a box of my sources, documents, and pictures of elders in the family that I had from my first journey to doing my family’s tree and story.
However, I got discouraged along the way the first time because some family members did not want me digging into my mom’s side of the tree. As I look back, I should have kept going because ignorance can be bliss or just a result of misinformation. Many times, those who don’t’ understand the importance of family history have to educate. It’s about teaching others around you about the men and women who broke their backs and risked their lives to build this country we live in today.
Meanwhile, I am super excited to learn more about my dad’s side since we have a family historian whose love for family history results in lots of documentation about the family. Because of my cousin Michael, we learned that our 6th greats grandfathers are in the Slave Book of Narrative. There is a picture of him with his story in the book. I got it and planned to read the entire book to learn more about him and others. Who knows what I can find out reading that book?
A’Lelia Bundles saw firsthand how the business of Hollywood works with turning biography into a series or film with the Netflix series Self-Made, which loosely based on her biography On Her Own Grounds: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker. Some parts of the series were fictional, but it opened the door for more people around the world to learn more about Madam CJ Walker. The series gives you a taste and thirst to know more about the Self-Made millionaire. I am intrigued to learn more about her as an entrepreneur, activist, and philanthropist. I ordered my book from Amazon the day after my interview.
I am looking forward to reading her book in the coming weeks.
I genuinely enjoyed my interview with A’Lelia Bundles not just because she is related to someone famous in our history but because she was genuine and dropped some nuggets of wisdom that I can apply to my purpose walk. Please be sure to visit her website to learn more about A’Lelia Bundle’s at www.aleliabundles.com and www.madamcjwalker.com to learn more about an African American woman who became a millionaire.
Take a listen to my interview on YouTube. Click play below and leave your comments. What did you take away from the conversation?
Amazing interview. Thank you for clarifying what was/wasn’t authentic about the story! Key point..so much of our true history is fictionalized and often portrays strife and dissention, its imperative that we change this narrative to ensure future generations operate on facts and cohesiveness.
Thank you Gigi for reading! Glad you enjoyed the interview.