Welcome to Karen Hunter's awesome.

I'm Karen Hunter, and today we're going to talk about Annie Turnbow Malone.

I have been obsessed with her story ever since I read a book several years ago called

Black Fortunes. Black Fortunes Chronicles, several black millionaires, people who became

very successful in the wake of reconstruction and the wake of the Great Depression. And she is one of the figures in this book.

And what really animated my love to know more about Annie Malone was that forever, forever,

I was taught to believe that Madam C.J. Walker was the first black woman millionaire in the

country. And she was not. And, you you know it makes me question everything it's like

why was madame c j walker's story pushed on us and not Annie malone what was it about matter

c j walker what was it about any malone that made them the people who write history erase her?

But I want to thank Tamara Wills for doing Black Fortunes because it's where I also learned about

Robert Church, Hannah Elias. There were so many amazing stories in this book about achievement

by people who we had never heard, I had never

heard of, so let me not say we, because some of you are very well read. But Annie Malone's story,

and I was particularly peeved when the self-made mini-series came out, produced by LeBron James,

highlighting the life in times of Madam C.J. Walker

was really pissed off because of how they depicted the character that was supposed to be Annie Malone.

And it bothered me because so many of these projects get greenlit by people who are too ignorant

to do projects like this. Not that LeBron doesn't

read or doesn't know, but he didn't know. He and Maver, whomever, you know, put this self-made

together. It starred Octavia Spencer. Who should know better? Who should know better? And any

Malone deserved better. So, you know, while I'm angry at them at the same time, I went through my life thinking Matt of C.J. Walker was everything. I even knew a person that owned her home in

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