Madam C.J. Walker invented a line of African American hair products after suffering from a scalp ailment that resulted in her own hair loss. She promoted her products by traveling around the country giving lecture-demonstrations and eventually established Madame C.J. Walker Laboratories to manufacture cosmetics and train sales beauticians.
Her business acumen led her to be one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire. She was also known for her philanthropic endeavors, including a donation toward the construction of an Indianapolis YMCA in 1913. Walker’s life was portrayed in the 2020 TV show Self Made, with Octavia Spencer portraying Walker.
Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, on a cotton plantation near Delta, Louisiana. She was the first in her family to be free-born. Sarah became an orphan and lived with relatives in Mississippi. There, she married a man, had a daughter, and became a widow after two years. Sarah moved to St. Louis with her daughter and attended high school there. Shhe met husband Charles J. Walker, who worked in advertising and would later help promote her hair care business.
After Sarah started losing hair because of a scalp condition, she began to experiment with both home remedies and store-bought hair care treatments in an attempt to improve her condition. In 1905, she 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, she perfected her own treatments and started a company, Madam C.J. Walker, taking her husband’s initials. She became known as Madam C.J. Walker as well.
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.
In Indianapolis, the company not only manufactured cosmetics but also 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.
Her story is worth reading more about or watching the show Self Made. Much of this post is from Biography.com, where you can find tons of bios on women this month.
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