When Madam CJ Walker passed away in 1919, she left a generous inheritance to her only child, A’Lelia. A’Lelia Walker then used the money to create a legendary space for our people. And as Langston Hughes said, it was “as crowded as the New York subway at the rush hour.”
The Dark Tower was a magnet for Harlem’s 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.B. DuBois could cut loose with jazz musicians, dancers like Mabel Hampton, French and Russian aristocrats, stock exchangers, and other members of the New York elite,” Langston Hughes wrote. Everyone from Paul Robeson to Zora Neale Hurston passed through. Although white people were allowed, Walker didn’t allow any blurred lines.
Walker served white people chitterlings 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 through.