Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) was one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire through her company, Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing. Though she had no formal education, she gained a wide reputation as an African American entrepreneur in the cosmetics industry and manufacturer of a hair remedy, which she coined the “Walker System.” She was also known for her philanthropy and political and social activism. She empowered women to become independent sales agents of her product line and opened opportunities for African American women to engage in business for themselves.
She was born Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana in December 1867, two years after the ratification of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. She was the first in her family to be born free. Life was not easy still; the Breedlove family were poor sharecroppers and shared an income with the owner of the land they farmed. She became an orphan at the age of seven and went to live with her older sister and brother-in-law in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where she took a job as a laundress or washerwoman, backbreaking and strenuous work.
Breedlove married when she was fourteen and though she became a widow from her first marriage, she also became a mother to a daughter, A’Lelia. The family soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where they joined her older brothers who worked as barbers. It was through their influence and her work as a commission agent selling Annie Malone’s products that she learned methods for treating black women’s hair and was inspired to create her own line of hair care products for African Americans.
When strands of her thick black hair began falling out due to an illness, she created a “hair growing” elixir and soon her hair was growing in faster than it was falling out. Rumors of the results of her successful products spread quickly and she re-branded her business with the name, Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. The Madam (sometimes spelled Madame) was a nod to the French beauty industry and Charles Joseph Walker was the name of her second husband.
