35TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION Super Hero MADAM C.J. WALKER

Madam C.J. Walker

After 38 years of a humble life in which she and her daughter lived virtually hand-to-mouth, Madam C. J. Walker perfected a hair-care formula. It was so popular with African Americans of the early 20th century that she became this country's first Black female millionaire and a pioneer in the cosmetics industry. Though she became one of the most famous African Americans of her time, she enjoyed her business success for only 14 years before her death. 

Born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana on December 23, 1867, Walker's parents were poor farmers and former slaves. They lived in a rundown shack on a plantation near the banks of the Mississippi River. The family slept on the dirt floor. Walker helped her parents and five siblings until she was orphaned at age seven. She then went to Mississippi, where she lived with an older sister. 

At the age of 14, Walker married to escape the cruelties of her sister's husband. Her husband died when she was 20, leaving her to raise her two-year-old daughter, A'Lelia. For the next 18 years, Walker worked as a washerwoman in St. Louis. Determined to make life better for her daughter, she saved her small earnings and sent A'Lelia to Knoxville College. This remained one of her proudest accomplishments. 

When Walker found herself going bald, she began experimenting with medicines and secret ingredients to try to nurse her hair back to health. In 1905, she developed a formula, with sulphur as a main ingredient, that not only stopped her hair loss but enabled her hair to grow back quickly. 

Walker always said the formula came to her in a dream after she prayed to God to save her hair. Some ingredients in the recipe that she envisioned were grown in Africa, so Walker sent for them. She prepared the concoction and, after applying it, found her hair growing back faster than it had fallen out. Walker then began selling this pomade preparation, which she called a "miracle hair grower," to friends and neighbors. 

In order to expand her business, Walker moved to Denver in 1905. She continued to sell her product to local Black women. Then, she decided to put the last $1.50 she had to her name into buying the necessary chemicals to manufacture the pomade in jars. Walker was now a businessperson, not a laborer. 

Newspaperman Charles Joseph Walker, whom she had known in St. Louis, joined her in Denver, and they married. He brought his expertise in advertising to the operation. Now known as Madam C. J. Walker, she put ads in Black publications and began the profitable mail-order arm of her business. 

After personally showing her styling methods door-to-door throughout the South and East, she opened beauty schools and trained agents. These agents started their own businesses selling her growing line of products. 

The success of her hair-care treatment system rested in the versatility of styling it offered African-American women who wanted different hairstyles. The Walker System was an international success; Walker had sales agents in Central America, Panama, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Haiti. Just before her death in 1919, she had hoped to travel to Europe to train more agents. 

Some historians dispute whether Walker or Annie Turnbo Malone became the first Black female millionaire. There is no doubt, however, that Walker ran a better business operation. Madam Walker and her daughter gave thousands of Black women an opportunity to become entrepreneurs in their organization. 

Walker's accomplishments paved the way for today's businesswomen. Just as important, she used her wealth and influence to help others by making large contributions to the NAACP's antilynching fund, the YMCA and YWCA, historic preservation projects, Black churches, and Black schools and colleges. 

Madam Walker died May 25, 1919, at her New York estate, Villa Lewaro. 

From Great African Americans.  Copyright, Publications International, Ltd.