Madame C. J. Walker
Encyclopedia
Madam C.J. Walker born Sarah Breedlove, was an African-American businesswoman
, hair care
entrepreneur
and philanthropist
. She made her fortune by developing and marketing a hugely successful line of beauty and hair products for black women under the company she founded, Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company.
to Owen and Minerva Breedlove. She was one of six children; she had a sister Louvenia and 4 brothers: Alexander, James, Solomon, and Owen, Jr. Her parents and elder siblings were slaves on a Madison Parish plantation owned by Robert W. Burney. Her mother died, possibly from cholera
, in 1872. Her father remarried and died shortly afterward when she was seven years old.
Madam C. J. Walker moved in with her older sister, and brother-in-law, Willie Powell. She later said she married Moses McWilliams when she was 14 years old to get a home of her own to escape Powell's abuse. Three years later her daughter, Lelia McWilliams (A'Lelia Walker
) was born. When Sarah was 20, her husband died. Shortly afterward she moved to St. Louis
where three of her brothers were barbers. She joined St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she sang in the choir and where she was greatly influenced by women members like Jessie Batts Robinson, a school teacher and wife of newspaper publisher, Christopher Robinson.
On August 11, 1894 Sarah married a man named John Davis. That marriage ended around 1903. In January 1906 she married a newspaper sales agent, Charles Joseph Walker. They divorced in 1912.
to make her scalp healthier for hair growth.
Soon Sarah, now known as Madam C. J. Walker, was selling her products throughout the United States. While her daughter Lelia ran a mail order business from Denver
, Madam Walker and her husband traveled throughout the southern and eastern states. They settled in Pittsburgh
in 1908 and opened Lelia College to train "hair culturists." In 1910 Walker moved to Indianapolis, Indiana
where she established her headquarters and built a factory.
She began to teach and train other black women in order to help them build their own businesses. She also gave other lectures on political, economic and social issues at conventions sponsored by powerful black institutions. After the East St. Louis Race Riot, she joined leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) in their efforts to support legislation to make lynching a federal crime. In 1918 at the biennial convention of the National Association Of Colored Woman (NACW) she was acknowledged for making the largest contribution to save the Anacostia (Washington, DC) house of abolitionist Frederick Douglass
. She continued to donate money throughout her career to the NAACP, the YMCA
, and to black schools, organizations, individuals, orphanages, and retirement homes.
In 1917 she moved to her Irvington-on-Hudson, New York estate, Villa Lewaro
, which had been designed by Vertner Tandy
, the first licensed black architect in New York State and a founding member of Alpha Phi Alpha
fraternity. The house cost $250,000 to build. Madam C.J. Walker died at Villa Lewaro on Sunday, May 25, 1919 from complications of hypertension
. She was 51. At her death she was considered to be the wealthiest African-American woman in America and known to be the first self-made female American millionaire. Her daughter, A'Lelia Walker, became the president of the C.J Walker Manufacturing Company.
, in Seneca Falls, New York, the National Cosmetology Hall of Fame and the National Direct Sales Hall of Fame. On January 28, 1998, the USPS, as part of its Black Heritage Series, issued the Madam C.J. Walker Commemorative stamp. On March 16, 2010, Congressman Charles Rangel introduced HJ81, a Congressional House Joint Resolution, honoring Madam C. J. Walker. In December 2010, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill designating the block of 136th Street between Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) and Seventh Avenue as Madam Walker and A'Lelia Walker Place.
While according to Walker's New York Times obituary, "she said herself two years ago [in 1917] that she was not yet a millionaire, but hoped to be some time," the Guinness Book of Records cites Walker as the first woman to become a millionaire
by her own achievements.
Businessperson
A businessperson is someone involved in a particular undertaking of activities for the purpose of generating revenue from a combination of human, financial, or physical capital. An entrepreneur is an example of a business person...
, hair care
Hair care
Hair care is an overall term for parts of hygiene and cosmetology involving the hair on the human head. Hair care will differ according to one's hair type and according to various processes that can be applied to hair...
entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. She made her fortune by developing and marketing a hugely successful line of beauty and hair products for black women under the company she founded, Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company.
Early life
Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove, on December 23, 1867 in Delta, LouisianaDelta, Louisiana
Delta is a village in Madison Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 239 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Tallulah Micropolitan Statistical Area.As the birthplace of Madam C.J...
to Owen and Minerva Breedlove. She was one of six children; she had a sister Louvenia and 4 brothers: Alexander, James, Solomon, and Owen, Jr. Her parents and elder siblings were slaves on a Madison Parish plantation owned by Robert W. Burney. Her mother died, possibly from cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
, in 1872. Her father remarried and died shortly afterward when she was seven years old.
Madam C. J. Walker moved in with her older sister, and brother-in-law, Willie Powell. She later said she married Moses McWilliams when she was 14 years old to get a home of her own to escape Powell's abuse. Three years later her daughter, Lelia McWilliams (A'Lelia Walker
A'Lelia Walker
A'Lelia Walker was an American businesswoman and patron of the arts. She was the daughter and only child of self-made millionaire Madam C.J. Walker.-Early life:...
) was born. When Sarah was 20, her husband died. Shortly afterward she moved to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
where three of her brothers were barbers. She joined St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she sang in the choir and where she was greatly influenced by women members like Jessie Batts Robinson, a school teacher and wife of newspaper publisher, Christopher Robinson.
On August 11, 1894 Sarah married a man named John Davis. That marriage ended around 1903. In January 1906 she married a newspaper sales agent, Charles Joseph Walker. They divorced in 1912.
Career
Like many women of her era, Sarah experienced hair loss. Because most Americans lacked indoor plumbing, central heating and electricity, they bathed and washed their hair infrequently. The result was scalp disease. Sarah experimented with home remedies and products already on the market until she finally developed her own shampoo and an ointment that contained sulfurSulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
to make her scalp healthier for hair growth.
Soon Sarah, now known as Madam C. J. Walker, was selling her products throughout the United States. While her daughter Lelia ran a mail order business from Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, Madam Walker and her husband traveled throughout the southern and eastern states. They settled in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
in 1908 and opened Lelia College to train "hair culturists." In 1910 Walker moved to Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
where she established her headquarters and built a factory.
She began to teach and train other black women in order to help them build their own businesses. She also gave other lectures on political, economic and social issues at conventions sponsored by powerful black institutions. After the East St. Louis Race Riot, she joined leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP) in their efforts to support legislation to make lynching a federal crime. In 1918 at the biennial convention of the National Association Of Colored Woman (NACW) she was acknowledged for making the largest contribution to save the Anacostia (Washington, DC) house of abolitionist Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
. She continued to donate money throughout her career to the NAACP, the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
, and to black schools, organizations, individuals, orphanages, and retirement homes.
Villa Lewaro
Villa Lewaro, also known as the Anne E. Poth Home, is located at Fargo Lane and North Broadway in Irvington, New York. It was the home of Madam C. J. Walker from 1918 to 1919. She is believed to be the first American female and first African-American female, self-made millionaire...
, which had been designed by Vertner Tandy
Vertner Tandy
Vertner Woodson Tandy was one of the seven founders of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell University in 1906. Before transferring to Cornell, Vertner studied architecture at Tuskegee University...
, the first licensed black architect in New York State and a founding member of Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha is the first Inter-Collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity. It was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its founders are known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha developed a model that was used by the many Black Greek Letter Organizations ...
fraternity. The house cost $250,000 to build. Madam C.J. Walker died at Villa Lewaro on Sunday, May 25, 1919 from complications of hypertension
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
. She was 51. At her death she was considered to be the wealthiest African-American woman in America and known to be the first self-made female American millionaire. Her daughter, A'Lelia Walker, became the president of the C.J Walker Manufacturing Company.
Recognition
Madam Walker was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in 1992, the National Women's Hall of FameNational Women's Hall of Fame
The National Women's Hall of Fame is an American institution. It was created in 1969 by a group of people in Seneca Falls, New York, the location of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention...
, in Seneca Falls, New York, the National Cosmetology Hall of Fame and the National Direct Sales Hall of Fame. On January 28, 1998, the USPS, as part of its Black Heritage Series, issued the Madam C.J. Walker Commemorative stamp. On March 16, 2010, Congressman Charles Rangel introduced HJ81, a Congressional House Joint Resolution, honoring Madam C. J. Walker. In December 2010, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill designating the block of 136th Street between Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) and Seventh Avenue as Madam Walker and A'Lelia Walker Place.
While according to Walker's New York Times obituary, "she said herself two years ago [in 1917] that she was not yet a millionaire, but hoped to be some time," the Guinness Book of Records cites Walker as the first woman to become a millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
by her own achievements.
Further reading
- A'Lelia BundlesA'Lelia BundlesA'Lelia Bundles is an African American journalist.-Family and early life:Bundles grew up in Indianapolis in a family of civic minded business executives. Her great-great-grandmother was the hair care entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker , and her great-grandmother and namesake was A'Lelia Walker , a...
On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker Lisa Drew Books/Scribner, 2001. ISBN 0-7434-3172-3 - Bundles, A'Lelia Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur Chelsea House/Facts on File, 2008. ISBN 978-1-60413-072-0
- Colman, PennyPenny ColmanPenny Colman is an author of books, essays, stories, and articles for all ages. In 2005, her social history, Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial, was named one of the 100 Best of the Best Books for the 21st Century by members of the Young Adult Library Services Association , a...
Madam C.J. Walker: Building a Business Empire. The Millbrook Press, 1994. - Due, TananariveTananarive DueTananarive Due is an American author.-Biography:Tananarive Priscilla Due was born in Tallahassee, Florida, the oldest of three daughters of civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due and civil rights lawyer John D. Due Jr...
The Black Rose: The Dramatic Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's First Black Female Millionaire. Ballantine Books, 2001. ISBN 0-3454-4156-7 - Beverly Lowry Her Dream of Dreams: The Rise and Triumph of Madam C. J. Walker Vintage, 2004. ISBN 0-6797-6803-3
Video links
- C-Span Book TV Madam Walker
- Madam Walker Research at the National Archives
- Madam Walker History
- U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis discusses Madam Walker
- Madam Walker's Irvington-on-Hudson, NY home Villa Lewaro
External links
- Madam Walker official biography website - Authorized site with accurate Walker biographical and historical information
- Madam Walker Theatre Center Indianapolis, IN National Historic Landmark and Original Walker Company Factory
- Madame Walker official company website - Manufactures And Distributes Original And Revamped Product Line.
- Madam Walker/A'Lelia Walker Family Archives - Private Collection of Walker photos, business documents and memorabilia
- Villa Lewaro - Madam Walker's Irvington-on-Hudson, NY estate and National Historic Landmark
- Harvard Business School's Madam Walker Case Study Harvard Business School
- Smithsonian Lemelson Center audio Madam Walker Smithsonian Inventions Podcast Part I
- Women Who Dared: Madam C. J. Walker "Women Who Dared: Madam Walker Biography"
- Obituary, "Wealthiest Negress Dead", The New York Times, May 26, 1919
- Breedlove, Sarah. Contemporary Black Biography: "Madame C. J. Walker". Gale Research via Gale Cengage Learning*
- “Two American Entrepreneurs: Madam C. J. Walker and J.C. Penney”, a National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP)