ATLANTA – There are a lot of unbelievable tales up and down Atlanta’s historic Auburn Avenue. And 30 years in the past, Ricci de Forest — identified professionally as Ricci Worldwide — uncovered one in every of them by chance.

“Using round in Atlanta…in my little convertible, I come up Auburn and switch the nook and I look to my left, and I see ‘Madam C.J. Walker’ on the glass,” he remembers. “Slammed on my breaks, parked the automobile, walked over to the glass window and simply began touching it.”

The profitable make-up and hair stylist says he instantly understood the importance of the identify.

“Madam C.J. Walker was an African-American magnificence pioneer — early 1900s — that established a system of promoting for her hair care merchandise that went world,” he says. “She was a worldwide model.”

Seems, that little store off of Auburn Avenue had been a licensed Madam C.J. Walker magnificence salon. And several other years later, as he looked for a brand new spot for his personal Ricci Worldwide salon, that identify within the window referred to as out once more. So, the entrepreneur obtained the lease and the important thing to the constructing…and far, way more.

“We began stumbling on to magnificence instruments left right here from the Nineteen Forties, simply scattered about,” he remembers. “Every little bit of historical past that I used to be getting began to change the course that Ricci Worldwide would take.”

And so plans for the salon obtained a makeover. At this time, indicators across the area denote it as The Madam C.J. Walker Museum, welcoming in guests to assist honor and protect the legacies of Black magnificence pioneers. The area can be crammed with cabinets of vinyl albums, paying homage to groundbreaking Black-owned radio station WERD, which went on-air in 1949 and was positioned in the identical constructing.

And, after all, the objective can be to coach new generations — like Johnathan Sims, who was so taken with the area that he got here on board as a associate.

“As a result of I’m an Atlanta native, rising up and not likely understanding in regards to the precise area, I felt like I had missed part of historical past,” says Sims. “So, as soon as I got here inside and truly regarded round, it was like, ‘This can be a goldmine. A diamond that almost all of Atlanta and the world must learn about.’”

A diamond gleaming within the coronary heart of Atlanta — and a reputation on the window that continues to encourage.

To donate to the museum’s mission of preservation and renovation plans within the upcoming 12 months, click on right here.