Wednesday, October 14, 2020
3:00 PM ET
Founder of a beauty empire, Madam C. J. Walker was celebrated as America’s first self-made female millionaire in the early 1900s. Known as a leading African American entrepreneur, Walker was also devoted to an activist philanthropy aiming to empower African Americans and challenging the injustices inflicted by Jim Crow. Dr. Tyrone McKinley Freeman’s biography highlights how giving shaped Walker’s life before and after she became wealthy. Poor and widowed when she arrived in St. Louis in her twenties, Walker found mentorship among black churchgoers and working black women. Her adoption of faith, racial uplift, education, and self-help soon informed her dedication to assisting black women’s entrepreneurship, financial independence, and activism. Walker embedded her philanthropy in how she grew her business, forged alliances with groups like the National Association of Colored Women, funded schools and social service agencies led by African American women, and enlisted her company’s sales agents in local charity and advocacy work. Illuminating and dramatic, Madam C. J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving broadens our understanding of black women’s charitable giving and establishes Walker as a foremother of African American philanthropy.
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Tyrone McKinley Freeman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
Dr. Tyrone McKinley Freeman is an award-winning scholar and teacher who serves as Assistant Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Previously, he was a professional fundraiser for social services, community development, and higher education organizations. He was also Associate Director of The Fund Raising School where he trained nonprofit leaders in the United States, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
His research focuses on the history of African American philanthropy, philanthropy in communities of color, the history of American philanthropy, and philanthropy and fundraising in higher education. His book, Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy during Jim Crow (University of Illinois Press, 2020) examines African American women’s history of charitable giving, activism, education, and social service provision through the life and example of Madam C.J. Walker, the early twentieth century black philanthropist and entrepreneur.
His work has appeared or been cited in O: The Oprah Magazine, TIME, BBC News, Newsweek, NewsOne, Blavity, The Conversation, Black Perspectives, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
He is co-author of Race, Gender and Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations (2011 Palgrave MacMillan). A proud HBCU grad, Tyrone earned a B.A. in English/Liberal Arts from Lincoln University (PA), a M.S. in Adult Education from Indiana University, a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University.