A'Lelia Bundles
A'Lelia Bundles (born June 7, 1952)[1] is an African-American journalist.
Family and early life
Bundles grew up in Indianapolis in a family of civic minded business executives. She was named after A'Lelia Walker (1885–1931), a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.[2] Walker was (via adoption) her great-grandmother. Walker was the daughter of entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker. Bundles' mother, A'Lelia Mae Perry Bundles (1928–1976), vice president of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company and active in local and state Democratic politics, 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-), became president of Summit Laboratories, another hair care 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 that addressed racial issues in a school with a student population that was less than ten percent black. In 1974 Bundles graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College.[3] She was inducted into Harvard's Alpha Iota chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.[4] Bundles received a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1976.[3]
Career
She is a former producer and executive with ABC News, having served as director of talent development in Washington, DC and New York, as well as in the position of deputy bureau chief in Washington, DC, as a producer for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and as chair of a diversity council appointed to advise 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 programs 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,[5] and received the Association of Black Women Historians 2001 Letitia Woods Brown Prize for the best book on black women's history. Her young adult biography, Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur, (Chelsea House, 1991) received a 1992 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.[6]
She is a trustee[3] of Columbia University and serves as chair and president of the Board of Directors of the National Archives Foundation.[7]
She is a past member of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study's 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[8] 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 organization in 2006.[9]
List of works
- On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker (Scribner, 2001)
- Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur (Chelsea House, 1991; revised 2008)
- Madam Walker Theatre Center: An Indianapolis Treasure (Arcadia Publishing, 2013)
- "Madam C. J. Walker" and "A'Lelia Walker" entries in Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Higginbotham's African American National Biography
- "Madam C. J. Walker" entry in Darlene Clark Hines's Black Women in America.
Awards
- Emmy Award (NBC News)
- duPont Gold Baton (ABC News 1994)[10]
- American Book Award 1992[6] for Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur (Chelsea House, 1991)
- New York Times Notable Book for On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker 2001[5]
- Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor Book 2002 [11]
- Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians 2001
- Distinguished alumni awards from Harvard University, Radcliffe College (2004)[12] and Columbia University (2007)[9]
- Honorary doctorate, Indiana University, 2003[13]
- North Central High School Hall of Fame
- Black Memorabilia Hall of Fame
References
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- ↑ "A History of Her Own", Indianapolis Woman, February 2001,
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Harvard Gazette: C.J. Walker's story is told at Radcliffe
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ ABC News Wins duPont Gold Baton
- ↑ Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Awards Winners (1994–Present) — Infoplease.com
- ↑ Radcliffe Institute to Honor Radcliffe and Harvard Women of Achievement - Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study – Harvard University
- ↑ Recipients of Indiana University Honorary Degrees
