8. She Gave Back to Her Community
Madam C. J. Walker was a prolific philanthropist, giving away large portions of her earnings to various causes in the arts and social justice. One of her first charitable endeavors was donating $1,000 (almost $26,000 today) to the “colored” Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) center in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1912. In the 1910s, the YMCA had yet to integrate and would not do so until 1946 officially, but much later in practice.
Walker also donated money to the Tuskegee Institute, part of the private, historically black college Tuskegee University. The Tuskegee Institute would later become famous for its incredibly unethical and immoral experimentation on Black men with syphilis without their consent. Walker also donated money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) anti-lynching efforts.
The largest beneficiaries of Walker’s generosity were the arts and historic preservation. Walker’s single largest donation was to the preservation fund for abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ historic home in Anacostia, Washington D.C. She also left over $100,000 (over $2.3 million today) to various artistic causes and orphanages. Her daughter, A’Lelia Walker, continued her mother’s dedication to artistic and social causes, becoming a noted philanthropist for the arts in her own right.