Annie Malone

Annie Turnbo Malone (August 9, 1869—May 10, 1957) was an African-American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist who, in the first three decades of the 20th century, built a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered around cosmetics for African-American women and, subsequently, training and poise for both genders.

Annie Malone was born in Metropolis, Illinois, where she lived with her eleven siblings until her parents' deaths. She was then sent upstate to be raised by her elder sister in Peoria. While there, she took an early interest in hair textures, and in the 1890s started looking for better methods of hair care for African-American women. At the time, improvements were much needed, since many women used goose fat and heavy oils to straighten their thick curls. The process of using oils and fats as hair straighteners caused damage to both scalp and hair.

At the beginning of the 1900s, Annie Malone had pioneered and revolutionized hair care methods for all African Americans. She created a variety of hair care treatments, including the first patented hot comb, which preceded the one popularized by an early employee of hers, Madam C.J. Walker. As early as 1902, she and her assistants were going door-to-door selling her own unique brand of hair care products, "Poro", a West African name, which means physical and spiritual growth. By 1917, as United States entered World War I, Annie Malone had become so successful that she founded and opened Poro College in St. Louis, the first educational institution in America dedicated to the study and teaching of black cosmetology. The school employed nearly two hundred people and ran a strict curriculum centered around instruction on the correct manner of walking, talking and style of dress designed to maintain a solid public persona.

By the 1920s, Annie Malone had become a multi-millionaire and continued to share her great wealth with those less fortunate than herself. As a way of fulfilling her part in society, she donated her money to, and served as president of, the St. Louis Colored Orphans Home. The institution was later revamped and renamed in order to pay homage to its most generous patron, and became the Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center.

In 1930, the first full year of the Depression, as Annie Malone entered her sixties and moved her headquarters to Chicago, she was financially devastated by a divorce (her second) and, soon thereafter, by two civil lawsuits. The lawsuits (for liability to an employee and a St. Louis newspaper) partially crippled her ability to conduct business, which, a few years later, in 1943, during the middle of World War II, was further ravaged by a lien to the Internal Revenue Service. After fighting the lawsuits for eight years, she lost Poro to the government and other creditors who took control of her business.

Annie Malone, one of the first original African American female entrepreneurs, died of a stroke in Chicago's Provident Hospital [http://www.isomedia.com/homes/bhd2/annie_malone.htm] at the age of 87.

External links

* [http://www.ketc.org/productions/productions_livingSTL_videoArchive.asp#recent KETC Living St. Louis Story]
* [http://www.anniemalone.com/ Annie Malone Children & Family Service Center]