She is an American journalist, news producer and author, known for her 2001 biography of her adoptive great-great grandmother Madam C J Walker.
1952
USA
American
Emmy Award (NBC News)
duPont Gold Baton (ABC News 1994)
American Book Award 1992 for Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur (Chelsea House, 1991)
The New York Times Notable Book for On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker 2001
Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honour Book 2002
Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians 2001
Distinguished alumni awards from Harvard University, Radcliffe College (2004)[14] and Columbia University (2007)
Honorary doctorate, Indiana University, 2003
North Central High School Hall of Fame
Black Memorabilia Hall of Fame
A’Lelia Bundles grew up in Indianapolis in a family of civic minded business executives. She was named after her grandmother (via adoption) A’Lelia Walker (1885–1931), a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and great-granddaughter of entrepreneur Madam C J Walker. Bundles’ mother, A’Lelia Mae Perry Bundles (1928–1976) was Vice President of the Madam C J Walker Manufacturing Company and active in local and state Democratic politics. She also served as a member of the Washington Township School Board and was a fiscal administrator with the City of Indianapolis. Her father, S Henry Bundles Jr (1927-2019), became President of Summit Laboratories, another haircare manufacturer, in 1957 after having worked briefly with the Walker Company. He served as an Indianapolis 500 Festival director for many years and was a board member of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Bundles graduated in 1970 in the top five per cent of her class from North Central High School, where she was co-editor of the Northern Lights, vice president of student council and co-chair and founder of the human relations council, which addressed racial issues in a student population less than ten percent Black. In 1974 Bundles graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges. Bundles received a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1976.
She was a producer and executive with ABC News, serving as director of talent development in Washington, DC and New York; as deputy bureau chief in Washington, DC; as a producer for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings; and as chair of a diversity council advising ABC News president David Westin. Prior to joining ABC News, she was a producer with NBC News in the New York, Houston and Atlanta bureaus for The Today Show and NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. She also was a producer in Washington, DC for two of NBC’s magazine programmes co-anchored by Connie Chung and Roger Mudd during the 1980s.
Her book, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker (Scribner, 2001), was named a New York Times’ Notable Book in 2001, and received the Association of Black Women Historians 2001 Letitia Woods Brown Prize for the best book on Black women’s history. In 2020 the book was adapted into the Netflix mini-series Self Made starring Octavia Spencer. Bundles’ young adult book Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur, (Chelsea House, 1991) received a 1992 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
She is a Trustee[5] of Columbia University and serves as Chair and President of the Board of Directors of the National Archives Foundation.
She is on the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study advisory board, the Harvard Alumni Association nominating committee, the Harvard Club of Washington DC Board, the Radcliffe College Trustees Board, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame Board. She was President of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association from 1999 to 2001 and chaired the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism’s alumni advisory committee to change the school’s alumni organisation in 2006.
Parents – A’Lelia Mae Perry Bundles, S. Henry Bundles Jr.
Grandmother – Fairy Mae Bryant
Family – A’Lelia Walker (great grandmother), Madam CJ Walker (great great grandmother)
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alelia-bundles-becomes-chair-president-of-the-foundation-for-the-national-archives-137011393.html accessed 22/06/2022
https://www.britannica.com/contributor/ALelia-Bundles/9861592 accessed 22/06/2022
https://en-gb.facebook.com/AleliaBundles.Author accessed 22/06/2022
https://awfj.org/blog/2020/08/11/alelia-bundles-on-two-dollars-and-a-dream-madam-c-j-walkers-impact-and-legacy-kathia-woods-interviews/ accessed 22/06/2022
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%27Lelia_Bundles accessed 22/06/2022
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/alelia-bundles-quotes accessed 22/06/2022
