Madam C. J. Walker

Madame C. J. Walker was the first free-born child in her family.  Born as Sarah Breedlove on a cotton plantation in Louisiana, she was the child of two former slaves who had recently been freed.  Both her parents died before she turned 7 and she was left as an orphan at a young age.  She married young at the age of 14 but was left a widow by 20 with a young child.  She moved to St. Louis and worked as a laundress.  She met her second husband, Charles J. Walker while in St. Louis.

Breedlove suffered from hair loss in the 1890s and wanted to find a treatment.  She started to experiment with her own formulas to try to cure her condition.  She moved to Denver in 1905 and worked as a cook for a pharmacist, which is where she learned chemistry that helped her perfect an ointment to help with dandruff.  She came up with a system of scalp treatments, ointments, and creams that she marketed specifically for African American women.  It became known as "The Walker System."  She sold her products directly to black women and used a very personal approach that won women over.  She trained thousands of African American women as beauty culturalists and gave them a job opportunity and a chance to make money.  She sold her hair and skin products through these door to door saleswomen and employed over 3,000 people in the selling and manufacturing of her products.  The headquarters for her company ended up being in Indianapolis because she was drawn to the black business community there.  She expanded internationally into the Carribean and Central America in 1913.

This booming business made her a very rich woman. She became the first self-made female millionaire, black or white. She had a total worth of over one million dollars including her multiple properties.  She became known as a philanthropist in the community.  She paid for 6 African American students to attend Tuskegee University and donated 5,000 dollars to the NAACP's anti-lynching efforts.  She bequeathed 2/3 of the future net profits of her company to charity and gave thousands to various schools and people.  She died in 1919 and Madam C. J Walker Manufacturing Company ceased operations in 1981. 


https://www.biography.com/inventor/madam-cj-walker
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/madame-c-j-walker
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Madam-C-J-Walker
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/madam-cj-walker