Today is the birthday of one of the most amazing African-American women in American History.
Sarah Breedlove was born on Dec. 23, 1867 on a La. cotton plantation to sharecroppers. She was the first of their children to be born free. She went on to become the first black female self-made millionaire in American History. Sarah was orphaned at age 7 and went to live with her older sister. As a child, she worked as a domestic servant. She had only three months of formal education. She married at age 14 to escape her abusive brother-in-law. Her husband died five years later, leaving her with a daughter. She left her second husband after nine years and later married Charles Joseph Walker. She ended up taking his name as Madame C.J. Walker. He was to help her with her business, but they eventually divorced. She moved to St. Louis where she worked as a laundress for about a dollar a day. She developed severe dandruff and scalp problems that included loss of hair. These types of problems were typical for poor black women, partly due to harsh chemicals used to clean their hair. With the encouragement from her barber brothers, she began to experiment with her own product. She went to work for Annie Malone, the leading hair care products employer. She moved to Denver with $1.05 in her pocket. She continued to sell for Malone, but perfected her own pomade which turned out to be her ticket to fame. She started her own hair care business. She trained thousands of “hair culturalists” in the “Walker system”. They would go door-to-door dressed in the standard white blouse and black skirt. They didn’t just sell the product, they showed women how to improve their scalps and hair using lotions and iron combs. She located her Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis. It included a beauty school and research laboratory. As the wealthiest black woman in America, she had an estate built in Irvington, NY. It was known as Villa Lewaro and cost an astounding $250,000. The mansion was 20,000 square feet. It became a cultural center and meeting place for the black intelligentsia. She was friends with Booker T. Washington, W.E.B DuBois, and Mary McLeod Bethune. She wasn’t just a rich hostess. She donated much of her money to black causes like the Black YMCA. She supported civil rights through the NAACP. She provided scholarships for women to attend Tuskegee Institute. She taught her agents finances so they could move on to their own businesses. She died in 1919 at age 51, leaving behind an amazing legacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_C._J._Walker
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/madame-c-j-walker
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/583774/madam-cj-walker-facts
0 Comments