- Madam C. J. Walker
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Madam C.J. Walker 
Madam Walker in a photograph ca. 1914 by Addison Scurlock.Birth name Sarah Breedlove Born December 23, 1867
Delta, LouisianaDied May 25, 1919 (aged 51)
Irvington, New YorkNationality American Field businesswoman, hair care, entrepreneur, and philanthropist 
Madam Walker and several friends in her automobile.
Madam C.J. Walker (December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919), 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.
Bold text==Early life==
Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah breedlove…, on December 23, 1867 in Delta, Louisiana 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.[1] Her mother died, possibly from cholera, in 1872. Her father remarried and died shortly afterward when she was seven years old.[2]
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.[2]
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.[3]
Contents
Career
Madame C.J. Walkers Wonderful Hair Grower from the collection of the Children's Museum of IndianapolisLike 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 sulfur 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.
The grave of Madam C. J. WalkerIn 1917 she moved to her Irvington-on-Hudson, New York estate, Villa Lewaro,[4] 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.[4] 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.
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 Fame,[5] 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.[6] On March 16, 2010, Congressman Charles Rangel introduced HJ81,[7] 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.[8]
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,"[4] the Guinness Book of Records cites Walker as the first woman to become a millionaire by her own achievements.
References
- ^ Madison Parish 1850 census, Rootsweb, Ancestry,com
- ^ a b A'Lelia Bundles, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker, New York: Scribner (2001).
- ^ On Her Own Ground/Bundles and Marion County Court Records/Indiana
- ^ a b c "Wealthiest Negress Dead". New York Times. May 26, 1919. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1223.html. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
- ^ "Madam C. J. Walker". National Women's Hall of Fame. 2010. http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall/details/2/162-Walker. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
- ^ "Madam C.J. Walker Beauty products entrepreneur; local philanthropist". Background summaries of people & events by The Star's library. IndyStar. updated 1-22-01. http://www2.indystar.com/library/factfiles/history/black_history/walker_madame.html. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
- ^ "Text of H. J. Res. 81: Recognizing Madam C.J. Walker for her achievements as a trailblazing woman in business, philanthropist, and 20th century activist for social justice". 111th CONGRESS. GovTrack. March 16, 2010. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hj111-81. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
- ^ "New York Street Named for Madam Walker and A'Lelia Walker". December 20, 2010. http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2010b%2Fpr516-10.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1.
Further reading
- A'Lelia Bundles 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, Penny Madam C.J. Walker: Building a Business Empire. The Millbrook Press, 1994.
- Due, Tananarive 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
- Madam C. J. Walker at Find a Grave
- 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 Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP)
Categories:- 1867 births
- 1919 deaths
- Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx)
- American philanthropists
- American women in business
- People from Madison Parish, Louisiana
- People from Indianapolis, Indiana
- African-American inventors
- Cosmetics businesspeople
- African American businesswomen
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