A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

To her credit, Madam Walker discerned that black women wanted to conform to white Victorian models of beauty. She was aware of the double- sidedness of her products - helping black women appear more European in look, with straight hair - but she always maintained that she was simply selling products that promoted hair growth.

A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

For many years Madam Walker was just a little footnote in history. As a woman who made haircare products, she was really consigned to something trivial.

A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

So Madam C.J. Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower, when applied after shampooing the hair more frequently, allowed women's scalp to be healthier and their hair to grow back. That was her most popular product.

A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

I was like other teenagers in the late 1960s; I too was very interested in having an Afro and getting rid of the perm that was in my hair.

A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

I've found that once people are introduced to Madam Walker's story, they are inspired but also perplexed about why she was omitted from their history lessons.

A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

For more than three years, I'd been part of a complex and frustrating dance as my nonfiction, fact-based material was translated from book to movie by scriptwriters whose visions, goals and sensibilities often were quite different from mine.

A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

She used her wealth and philanthropy to contribute to Black schools and colleges, she gave the largest gift the NAACP had ever received to it's anti-lynching fund... Madam Walker's life was one of transformation and re-invention.

A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles

The saying was that Madam Walker made the money, and her daughter - my great-grandmother - spent it.

A. A. Gill
A. A. Gill

We have to thank the members of the Romantic movement for the sober colours of suits. It was their love of the Gothic that put us in grey and black but the suit stuck.

A. A. Gill
A. A. Gill

Have you noticed that almost all the change in the world goes to women? When was the last time you had a five pence piece? Exactly. In a Christmas pudding. All the rest of it is in women's handbags.