Who Was

Madame C.J. Walker?

https://tech.co/21-successful-black-entrepreneurs-throughout-history-2015-02

“The 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 very doors.” –Madame C.J. Walker, 1913 in A’Leila Bundles, On Her Own Ground, p. 153.

Sarah Breedlove came into the world in 1867 in Louisiana. The hard-working, widowed Ms. Breedlove moved and found steady work in St. Louis, MO, to support herself and her young daughter. Then, to solve her own hair loss problem, Ms. Breedlove, the woman who would later take the name Madame C.J. Walker (Charles Joseph Walker was her second husband’s name), developed hair products. She moved her business to Denver, CO., to avoid competition in St. Louis, and expanded her product line and her business, training a sales force of women who sold her products. Ms. Walker was so successful as an entrepreneur that she became a millionaire and a philanthropist. Her efforts extended to her advocacy for the early Civil Rights movement as well. When Madam C. J. Walker passed away in 1919, she left funds to the NAACP and the Tuskegee Institute.

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Sources:

Smith, C.A. (2005). Market Women: Black Women Entrepreneurs: Past, Present, and Future. Westport, CT: Praeger. p. 75.

Vare, E. A., & Ptacek, G. (1993). Madam C.J. Walker. Women Inventors & Their Discoveries, 50.