We all know about Madam C.J. Walker's beauty empire, but when she died, her daughter flipped her fortune into something dark.

I'm Len with Push Black, and this is Two-Minute Black History, What You didn't learn in school.

When Madam C.J. Walker passed away in 1919, she left a generous inheritance to her only daughter, Alila.

Alila Walker then used the money to create a legendary space for our people.

And as Langson Hughes said, it was as crowded as the New York subway at Rush Hour.

The Dark Tower was a magnet for Harlem artists, creatives, and intellectuals during the Harlem Renaissance.

It was where black people, queer, straight, and everything in between, could be themselves and attend lavish parties that lasted for days.

Everyone, who was anyone, was there.

Walker's home was the kind of place where an acclaimed scholar

like W.E. Du Bois could cut loose with jazz musicians, dancers like Maple Hamilton, French and

Russian aristocrats, stock exchanges, and other members of the New York elite, Lansing Hughes wrote.

Everyone from Paul Robson to Zora Neil Hurston passed through.

And although white people were allowed, Walker didn't allow any blurred lines.

Walker served white people chitlins and bathtub gin, while our people were said to have dined on caviar and champagne.

The gatherings weren't just for partying though.

Walker was intentionally creating space for Black Joy at a time when lynchings and racial terror

were right outside.

Across generations, no matter what anti-Black forces we faced, the community has always kept us.

And especially now, we must lean on each other to make it clear.

In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the past.

This has been Two Minute Black History, the podcast by Push Black.

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