Reviews

On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker

By A'Lelia Bundles. Scribner. 888/866-6631. (www.simonsays.com/index) 2001. Hardcover, 400 pages, $30; Washington Square Press. (www.simonsays.com/index) 2002. Paperback, 416 pages, $15.

Reviewed by Rodney M. Jackson

I've learned more about black history by studying philanthropy than I ever did by sitting in a classroom. Reading the works of Emmett Carson, James Joseph, Marsha Jean Darling, and C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya, exposed me to little known, but nonetheless important, aspects of that history.

Under the umbrella of philanthropy, those distinguished authors have demonstrated that black history is America's history. In On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, A'Lelia Bundles lovingly, but honestly, relates the story of her great-great-grandmother, Madam C.J. Walker, the first woman of any race to earn $1 million (in today's dollars). The Madam, whose birth name was Sarah Breedlove, was born to share cropper parents in the Louisiana delta two days before Christmas 1867. Although her four siblings—Louvenia; Owen, Jr.; Alexander; and James—had been born slaves, Sarah was born free, which must have symbolized hope for her parents; but even hope had its limits in the antebellum South.

When her mother died in 1873 and her father two years later, Sarah was just a child. She then went to live with her older sister and her husband, whom she would later describe as "cruel." At age 14, Sarah married Moses McWilliams. It was the first of three bad marriages. During this time, Sarah supported herself as a washerwoman, primarily doing the laundry of wealthy white families.

Later on, she would join the wave of blacks migrating north hoping to improve their lives. She ended up in St. Louis, Missouri, and it was there that Sarah first noticed that her hair was breaking off and falling out. Years later, she would claim that she received in a dream a most remarkable formula for regrowing hair. Whether or not she actually received the formula in a dream is open to question. What is not open to question, however, is the fact that the formula actually worked, and the rest, as they say in the vernacular, is herstory.

The full story of the transformation of Sarah Breedlove into Madam C.J. Walker, one of the wealthiest persons of her time, is one in which students of many fields should be interested. Students of black history will be fascinated by the author's rich descriptions of black life in the antebellum South, the Great Migration of blacks from the South to the North, and Harlem during its great renaissance with a glimpse into the lives of black aristocracy at the time.

Students of business and economics will be quite impressed by Walker's keen business acumen that turned a modest one-person hair growing business into what would be, in today's terms, a multimillion-dollar industry with employees nationwide. She was the quintessential Smith-Barney, because not only did she "earrrn" it, she earned it the hard way.

Feminists (and others) will admire her single-mindedness, her work ethic and her courage in overcoming two of the most daunting obstacles a person could face in her time—being black and female. All women will find in Walker a kindred spirit not just to be admired from afar but whose example can be emulated today.

And, of course, there is Madam Walker the philanthropist, who gave one of the largest gifts to the NAACP that they had received at that time from anyone, much less a black woman. According to Bundles, Walker's reputation as a generous woman had caused her to be inundated with requests for money from all over the country. Typical of the philanthropy of blacks at that time was Madam's support of her family: a sister-in-law, four nieces and an elder sister and her son who had been serving time for manslaughter. As anyone who suddenly comes into great wealth soon finds out, taking care of one's own family can become a nightmare. Resentful, but duty-bound to care for her family members, Bundles writes, "Madam Walker instructed (her lawyer) to keep them on strict budgets, lest they become even more dependent upon her. . . ."

The story of Madam C.J. Walker has many dimensions: a mother-daughter relationship that could have occupied a therapist—had one been available—for years. As successful as Madam was in her business affairs, both she and her daughter were equally unsuccessfully in affairs of the heart, both enduring three marriages and three divorces each.

On Her Own Ground would make a great movie. African American actresses, screenwriters and producers should take note of the richness of the characters, settings and plots. It's more than just another rags-to-riches tale. It's the story of the indomitable human spirit. Not just a black story, but also a human story, a reflection of us all.

Social Capital and Poor Communities

Edited by Susan Saegert, J. Phillip Thompson and Mark R. Warren. Russell Sage Foundation. 212/750-6037. (www.russellsage.org) 2001. Cloth, 296 pages, $39.95.

Reviewed by Martha A. Toll

Social Capital and Poor Communities will likely appeal to academics steeped in sociology but foundation professionals may want to make the effort to extract its useful lessons.

The book consists of a series of essays by professors and other researchers, some of whom are well known and widely published in the fields of community organizing and economic development. The authors address the role of "social capital" in low-income communities around the country, and how it can affect and be affected by government policy and the life of the community.

Many readers will be acquainted with the term social capital, most recently injected into public debate by professor Robert D. Putnam of Harvard University with his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Putnam defines social capital in the foreword to Social Capital and Poor Communities as "the bonds of community that in myriad ways enrich our lives." Putnam has been in both the popular and academic spotlight with his thesis that many of today's social problems stem from our being "increasingly disconnected from [our] communities and from one another," resulting in a "growing deficit" in social capital.

Other than in the chapter titled "Social Capital, Political Participation and the Urban Community," none of the other 23 contributors to this volume seem to question the validity of Putnam's views. Although some contributors acknowledge that social capital is only one part of a complex set of community assets, it would have been thought provoking to question Putnam's assertion that social capital is, in fact, on the decline. A further complication is that each chapter provides a somewhat different definition of social capital.

This book contributes a series of new takes on the intersections of social capital and public policy; including crime, housing, education, economic development, rural development and community health policy. Many of those chapters also examine the important divisive roles of class and race, as well as how government policy has too often disrupted or even destroyed communities' social capital. Each chapter in this section of the book gives some examples of community-based organizations that for various reasons have been able to overcome those obstacles and make a positive impact on government and social policy. Foundations will likely want to consider why those organizations succeeded, and identify similar grantees.

The volume also covers social capital as it relates to institutions in our society such as organized religion, organized labor and political institutions. This was the most accessible part of the volume. Engaging discussions on the interface among social capital, religious institutions and poor communities; the tensions between organized labor and poor communities; and the intersection between social capital and political power provide the reader with challenging new ways to think about the role of organized religion, organized labor and the political establishment in our society.

Although this volume makes a significant contribution to the academic literature on social capital, it is not clear what practical lessons there are for the foundation professional. While there are chapters in the book that provide meaningful background on a range of profound social problems, research is presented in opaque sociological jargon. With all of the brainpower behind this ambitious volume, it is regrettable that it does not provide more support for the day-to-day business of making and evaluating grants to community-based organizations.

The issues this book addresses are vitally important to today's world—its growing gap between rich and poor, increasing government disaffection with the social safety net and shrinking public and foundation resources. The book would have made a more valuable contribution if it were more accessible to readers not steeped in the technical aspects of academic sociology. This is unfortunate because the extensive foundation involvement with its production (the Ford Foundation funded the volume, and the Russell Sage Foundation published it) would make it seem as if the book was intended for foundations to support their work in alleviating poverty.

It is certainly true that responsible foundation professionals need to remain current on the range of key social issues addressed in this volume. Foundation professionals clearly benefit from writing that challenges them to think "outside the box" and encourages them to work toward social change in new and meaningful ways. In the future, however, it would be helpful for academics to communicate the benefits of their research in more comprehensible fashion to those outside their disciplines.

Rodney M. Jackson is president and CEO of the National Center for Black Philanthropy, Inc. (www.ncfbp.org).

Martha A. Toll is executive director of the Butler Family Fund in Washington, DC.