Madam C.J. Walker Biography

Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, created specialized hair products for African-American hair and was the first American woman to become a millionaire through her own business

Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, near Delta, Louisiana. After suffering from a scalp ailment that resulted in her own hair loss, she invented a line of African-American hair care products in 1905. She promoted her products by traveling about the country giving lecture-demonstrations and eventually established Madame C.J. Walker Laboratories to manufacture cosmetics and train sales beauticians. Her savvy business acumen led her to become the first female self-made millionaire in the United States who donated the largest amount of money by an African-American toward the construction of an Indianapolis YMCA in 1913. She was rivaled only by the countless philanthropic endeavors for which she is also known.

Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, on a cotton plantation near Delta, Louisiana. Her parents, Owen and Minerva, were recently freed slaves, and Sarah, who was their fifth child, was the first in her family to be free-born. Minerva Breedlove died in 1874 and Owen passed away the following year, both due to unknown causes, and Sarah became an orphan at the age of 7. After her parents' passing, Sarah was sent to live with her sister, Louvinia, and her brother-in-law. The three moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1877, where Sarah picked cotton and was likely employed doing household work, although no documentation exists verifying her employment at the time.
At age 14, to escape both her oppressive working environment and the frequent mistreatment she endured at the hands of her brother-in-law, Sarah married a man named Moses McWilliams. On June 6, 1885, Sarah gave birth to a daughter, A'Leila. When Moses died two years later, Sarah and A'Lelia moved to St. Louis, where Sarah's brothers had established themselves as barbers. There, Sarah found work as a washerwoman, earning $1.50 a day—enough to send her daughter to the city's public schools. She also attended public night school whenever she could. While in St. Louis, Breedlove  met her second husband Charles J. Walker, who worked in advertising and would later help promote her hair care business.

During the 1890s, Sarah Breedlove developed a scalp disorder that caused  her to lose much of her hair, and she began to experiment with both  home remedies and store-bought hair care treatments in an attempt to  improve her condition. In 1905, Breedlove was hired as a commission  agent by Annie Turnbo Malone—a successful, black, hair care product entrepreneur—and she moved to Denver, Colorado. While there, Breedlove's husband Charles helped her create advertisements for a hair care treatment for  African Americans that she was perfecting. Her husband also encouraged  her to use the more recognizable name "Madam C.J. Walker," by which she was thereafter known.
In 1907, Walker and her husband traveled around  the South and Southeast promoting her products and giving lecture  demonstrations of her "Walker Method"—involving her own formula  for pomade, brushing and the use of heated combs.

Success and PhilanthropyAs profits continued to grow, in 1908 Walker opened a factory and a beauty school in Pittsburgh, and by 1910, when Walker transferred her business operations to Indianapolis, the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing  Company had become wildly successful, with profits that were the  modern-day equivalent of several million dollars. In Indianapolis, the company not only manufactured  cosmetics, but trained sales beauticians. These "Walker Agents" became  well known throughout the black communities of the United States. In  turn, they promoted Walker's philosophy of "cleanliness and  loveliness" as a means of advancing the status of African-Americans. An  innovator, Walker organized clubs and conventions for her representatives,  which recognized not only successful sales, but also philanthropic and educational efforts among African-Americans.
In 1913, Walker and Charles divorced, and she traveled  throughout Latin America and the Caribbean promoting her business and  recruiting others to teach her hair care methods. While her mother  traveled, A'Lelia Walker helped facilitate the purchase of property in  Harlem, New York, recognizing that the area would be an important base  for future business operations. In 1916, upon returning from her  travels, Walker moved to her new townhouse in Harlem. From there, she  would continue to operate her business, while leaving the day-to-day  operations of her factory in Indianapolis to its forelady.
Walker quickly immersed herself in Harlem's social and political  culture. She founded philanthropies that included educational  scholarships and donations to homes for the elderly, the National Association for the Advancement  of Colored People, and the National Conference on  Lynching, among other organizations focused on improving the lives of African-Americans. She also donated the largest amount of money by an African-American toward the construction of an Indianapolis YMCA in 1913.

Death and LegacyMadam C.J. Walker died of hypertension on May 25, 1919, at age 51, at  the estate home she had built for herself in Irvington-on-Hudson, New  York. At the time of her death, Walker was sole owner of her  business, which was valued at more than $1 million. Her personal fortune  was estimated at between $600,000 and $700,000. Today, Walker is widely credited as the first American woman to become a self-made millionaire.
Walker left one-third of  her estate to her daughter, A'Lelia Walker—who would also become well-known as an  important part of the cultural Harlem Renaissance—and the remainder to  various charities. Walker's funeral took place at her home, Villa Lewaro, in Irvington-on-Hudson, which was designated a National Historic Landmark, and she was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in  the Bronx, New York.
In 1927, the Walker Building, an arts center that Walker  had begun work on before her death, was opened in Indianapolis. An  important African-American cultural center for decades, it is now a  registered National Historic Landmark. In 1998, the United States Postal  Service issued a stamp of Madam C.J. Walker as part of its "Black  Heritage" series.

a true visionary