Madam C.J. Walker was an American businesswoman, manufacturer, activist, and philanthropist. Walker rose from poverty in the South to become one of the wealthiest African-American women of her time. She created specialized hair products for African American hair care and was one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire. She used her position to advocate for the advancement of black Americans and for an end to lynching.
Background
Madame C. J. Walker, named Sarah Breedlove at birth, was born on December 23, 1867, in Delta, Louisiana, the United States, to Owen and Minerva Breedlove, both of whom were emancipated slaves. Sarah, who was their fifth child, was the first in her family to be free-born. The Breedloves worked as sharecroppers on a cotton plantation.
Minerva died in 1874 and Owen passed away the following year, both due to unknown causes, leaving Sarah an orphan at the age of seven. It is believed that her mother succumbed to Cholera during the year 1872, after which Sarah’s father got married for a second time. After her parents' passing, Sarah was sent to live with her sister, Louvinia, and her brother-in-law.
Education
Sarah worked hard from the time she was very young, was extremely poor, and had little opportunity to get an education. She attended Sunday school literacy lessons at the church and received only three months of formal education. Later, she also attended public night school whenever she could.
In 1878, after the cotton crop failed and a yellow fever epidemic struck, the young girl Sarah moved to Vicksburg to live with her sister Louvinia, where she picked cotton and was likely employed doing household work, although no documentation exists verifying her employment at the time. At twenty Sarah decided to move to St. Louis, where she worked as a laundress and in other domestic positions for eighteen years.
She worked as a poorly paid washerwoman for more than a decade and joined St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she sang in the choir and was mentored by teachers and members of the National Association of Colored Women. During that time she tried various commercial hairdressings and began experimenting with her own formula to cure scalp infections that caused baldness. For about two years, she was a sales agent for Annie Turnbo, the founder of the Poro Company. After moving to Denver in 1905, she worked as a cook for a pharmacist, from whom she learned the basic chemistry that allowed her to perfect an ointment that healed dandruff and other hygiene-related ailments that were common during a time when most Americans lacked indoor plumbing.
By the time she was in her late thirties, Sarah was contending with hair loss because of a combination of stress and damaging hair care products. After experimenting with various methods, she developed a formula of her own that caused her hair to grow again quickly. She often recounted that after praying about her hair, she was given the formula in a dream. When friends and family members noticed how Sarah's hair grew back, they began to ask her to duplicate her product for them. She began to prepare her formula at home, selling it to friends and family and marketing it door to door. With the help of her family, she began to advertise a growing number of hair care products. Her husband helped her develop mail marketing techniques for her products, usually through the medium of African American-owned newspapers. When their small business was successful, with earnings of about $10 a day, Walker felt that she should continue to expand, but her husband felt that she was too ambitious. Rather than allow her husband's wishes to restrain her, the couple separated. Walker's business continued to develop, as she not only marketed her hair care products but also tutored African American men and women in their use, recruiting a group called "Walker Agents."
Her products were often used in conjunction with a metal comb that was heated on the stove and used to straighten very curly hair. She also began to manufacture a facial skin cream. The hair process was controversial because many felt that African American women should wear their hair in natural styles rather than attempt to change the texture from curly to straight. In spite of critics, Walker's hair care methods gained increasing popularity among African American women, who enjoyed products designed especially for them. This resulted in growing profits for Walker's business and an increasing number of agents who marketed the products for her door to door.
Working closely with her daughter Lelia (who later changed her name to A'Lelia), Walker opened a school for "hair culturists" in Pittsburgh - Lelia College - which operated from 1908 to 1910. In 1910 the Walkers moved to Indianapolis, where they established a modern factory to produce their products. They also began to hire African American professionals who could direct various aspects of their operation. Among the workers were tutors who helped Walker get a basic education. Walker traveled throughout the nation demonstrating her products, recruiting salespersons and practitioners, and encouraging African American entrepreneurs. Her rounds included conventions of African American organizations, churches, and civic groups. Not content with her domestic achievements, Walker traveled to the Caribbean and Latin America to promote her business and to recruit individuals to teach her hair care methods.
Observers estimated that Walker's company had about three thousand agents for whom Walker held annual conventions where they were tutored in product use, hygienic care techniques, and marketing strategies. She also gave cash awards to those who were most successful in promoting sales.
At A'Lelia's urging, Walker purchased the property in New York City in 1913, with the belief that a base in that city would be important. In 1916 she moved to a luxurious townhouse she had built in Harlem, and a year later to a posh estate called Villa Lewaro she had constructed at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Although Walker and her daughter lived lavishly, they carefully managed each aspect of their business, whose headquarters remained in Indianapolis, and gave to a number of philanthropic organizations.
Although cautioned by her doctors that her fast-paced life was impairing her health, Walker did not heed the warnings. On May 25, 1919, when she was 51 years old, she died of hypertension. Her daughter, A'Lelia, succeeded her as president of the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company.
At St. Louis, Sarah joined St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Politics
Walker became politically active, when, according to rumor, Walker's first husband was lynched. She spoke out against lynching at the Negro Silent Protest Parade and supported anti-lynching legislation and gave generously to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, eventually willing that organization her estate in Irvington-on-Hudson.
Also a civil rights activist, in 1917, Madam C.J. Walker was part of a delegation that traveled to the White House to petition President Woodrow Wilson to make lynching a federal crime.
Views
Walker’s reputation as an entrepreneur was matched only by her reputation for philanthropy. She established clubs for her employees, encouraging them to give back to their communities and rewarding them with bonuses when they did. At a time when jobs for black women were fairly limited, she promoted female talent, even stipulating in her company’s charter that only a woman could serve as president.
The Walkers generously supported religious, educational, charitable, and civil rights organizations. Walker was also known for her philanthropic endeavors, including a donation toward the construction of an Indianapolis Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in 1913. She also covered tuition for six African American students at Tuskegee Institute.
Prior to her death, Madam had donated $5000 towards an anti-lynching fund, to put an end to the inhuman form of punishment in the nation. Another $100,000 of her earnings was distributed amongst various charitable organizations. Just prior to dying of kidney failure, Walker revised her will, bequeathing two-thirds of future net profits to charity, as well as thousands of dollars to various individuals and schools.
Quotations:
"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations... I have built my own factory on my own ground."
"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them."
"I want you to understand that your first duty is to humanity. I want others to look at us and see that we care not just about ourselves but about others."
"I am not satisfied in making money for myself. I endeavor to provide employment for hundreds of the women of my race."
"America doesn't respect anything but money. What our people need is a few millionaires."
"There would be no hair growing business today had I not started it."
"Perseverance is my motto."
"I got my start by giving myself a start."
"I want others to look at us and see that we care not just about ourselves but about others."
"Girls and women of our race must not be afraid to take hold of business endeavor and, by patient industry, close economy, determined effort, and close application to business, wring success out of a number of business opportunities that lie at their doors."
Connections
Partly to escape her abusive brother-in-law, at age 14 Walker married Moses McWilliams. When her husband died in 1887, Walker became a single parent of two-year-old daughter Lelia (later known as A’Lelia). Sarah and A'Lelia moved to St. Louis, where Sarah's brothers had established themselves as barbers. In 1894, she married John Davis, but the marriage was troubled, and the couple later divorced.
While in St. Louis, Breedlove met third husband Charles J. Walker, who worked in advertising and would later help promote her hair care business. She adopted her husband's initials and surname as her professional name, calling herself Madam C. J. Walker for the rest of her life, even after the marriage ended. The couple divorced in 1912.