Passage II

Madam Walker’s Business Empire

[1]

[1] When Madam C. J. Walker gave the keynote address at the 1913 National Negro Business League Convention, she was widely considered to be the first American woman to become a self-made millionaire. [2] She had come a long way from her beginnings starting as Sarah Breedlove. [3] She was orphaned at the age of seven, married by the time she was fourteen, and twenty when she became a widow. [4] Born in 1867 in Delta, Louisiana, Breedlove was the daughter of former slaves. [5] She then moved to St. Louis to work as a laundress and raise her daughter, Lelia. (18)

[2]

Having suffered hair loss as a result of stress, poor diet, and damaging hair-care treatments; Breedlove studied the ingredients in hair products and began to develop her own line of hair products for African American women. In 1905, she moved to Denver, married Charles J. Walker, and started her own business.

[3]

Madam Walker began small, selling her merchandise door-to-door. Soon she was traveling across the country to promote her business and train sales agents. (21) In 1910, she moved her mail-order operation to Indianapolis because she longed to participate in the culture of a large city.

[4]

Madam Walker trained thousands of women in addition to the Walker System of hair care. She helped them to establish home businesses selling her hair treatments. At a time when many Black women were employed as servants or sharecroppers, Walker was creating business opportunities for them, that could lead to their economic independence.

[5]

Because she had so many interests, Walker became increasingly outspoken on the political front. She served as a speaker at rallies and fund-raisers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). By the time of her death in 1919, she has became a leading philanthropist, having donated large portions of her fortune to Black schools, organizations, and individuals.