Madam Walker descendant/biographer at IUPUI Feb. 24

On Her Own Ground is the story of Walker, the daughter of slaves who was orphaned at 7, married at 14 and widowed at 20. She spent most of the next two decades laboring as a washerwoman for $1.50 a week. Then—with the discovery of a revolutionary hair-care formula for black women—everything changed. By her death in 1919, Walker managed to overcome astonishing odds: building a beauty empire from the ground up, amassing wealth unprecedented among black women and devoting her life to philanthropy and social activism. Along the way, she formed friendships with great 20th-century political figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.

Bundles, a former bureau chief for ABC News in Washington, D.C., and an Emmy-winning network television producer, also showcased Walker’s complex relationship with daughter A’Lelia Walker, a celebrated hostess of the Harlem Renaissance.