1867-1919
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Who is Madam CJ Walker?
Madam CJ Walker invented a line of African American hair products after suffering from a scalp disease that caused her hair to fall out. She promoted her products by traveling around the country giving lecture-demonstrations and eventually founded Madame CJ Walker Laboratories to produce cosmetics and train beauticians to sell.
Her business acumen led her to become one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire. He is also known for his philanthropic efforts, including a donation for the construction of an Indianapolis YMCA in 1913. Walker’s life was depicted in the 2020 TV movie Self Madewith Octavia Spencer portraying Walker.
Early Life
Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, on a cotton plantation near Delta, Louisiana. Her parents, Owen and Minerva, were enslaved and recently freed, and Sarah, their fifth child, was the first in her family to be born free.
Minerva died in 1874 and Owen died the following year, of unknown causes, leaving Sarah an orphan at the age of seven. After the death of her parents, Sarah was sent to live with her sister, Louvinia, and her brother-in-law.
The three moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1877, where Sarah picked cotton and probably worked as a housekeeper, although there is no documentation confirming her occupation at the time.
Daughter A’Lelia Walker
At the age of 14, to escape her oppressive work environment and the constant abuse she suffered at the hands of her brother-in-law, Sarah married a man named Moses McWilliams. On June 6, 1885, Sarah gave birth to a daughter, A’Lelia.
When Moses died two years later, Sarah and A’Lelia moved to St. Louis, where Sarah’s brothers became barbers. There, Sarah found work as a washerwoman, earning $1.50 a day — enough to send her daughter to the city’s public schools.
He also attends public school at night when he can. While in St. Louis, Breedlove met husband Charles J. Walker, who worked in advertising and would later help develop her hair care business.
Hair Care
During the 1890s, Sarah developed a scalp disease that caused her to lose most of her hair, and she began experimenting with home remedies and over-the-counter hair care products. in the store in an attempt to improve his situation.
In 1905, he was hired as a commission agent by Annie Turnbo Malone – a successful, Black, hair care product trader – and he moved to Denver, Colorado.
READ MORE: How Madam CJ Walker Invented Her Hair Care Products
Madam CJ Walker Company
While there, Sarah’s husband, Charles, helped her create advertisements for a hair care line for African Americans that she perfected. Her husband also encouraged her to use the more familiar name “Madam CJ Walker,” by which she became known thereafter.
In 1907 Walker and her husband toured the South and Southeast promoting her products and giving lecture demonstrations of her “Walker Method” — involving her own formula for pomade, brushing and the use of heated tools. comb.
Walker Agents
As profits continued to grow, in 1908 Walker opened a factory and a beauty school in Pittsburgh, and in 1910, when Walker moved his business operations to Indianapolis, the Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company became ‘g very successful, with modern-day profits equivalent to several million dollars.
In Indianapolis, the company not only manufactures cosmetics but also trains sales beauticians. These “Walker Agents” became well known throughout the Black communities of the United States. Instead, they promoted Walker’s philosophy of “cleanliness and beauty” as a way to improve the lot of African Americans.
A relentless innovator, Walker organized clubs and conventions for his representatives, which recognized not only successful sales, but also the philanthropic and educational efforts of African Americans.
Harlem Years
In 1913, Walker and Charles divorced, and she traveled throughout Latin America and the Caribbean promoting her business and recruiting others to teach her hair care methods. While her mother was traveling, A’Lelia helped facilitate the purchase of property in Harlem, New York, knowing that the area would be an important base for future business operations.
In 1916, upon returning from his travels, Walker moved into his new townhouse in Harlem. From there, he will continue to operate his business, while leaving the day-to-day operations of his Indianapolis factory to its forelady.
Walker quickly immersed himself in the social and political culture of the Harlem Renaissance. He founded philanthropies that include educational scholarships and donations to homes for the elderly, the NAACP, and the National Conference on Lynching, among other organizations focused on improving lives. of African Americans.
He also donated the largest amount of money by an African American for the establishment of an Indianapolis YMCA in 1913.
house
In 1918, in Irvington-on-Hudson – about 20 miles north of New York City in the Hudson Valley – Walker built an Italianate mansion he called Villa Lewaro. It was designed by Vertner Tandy, an accomplished African American architect.
Villa Lewaro was a gathering place for many luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
READ MORE: Madam CJ Walker and 9 Black Inventors That Changed Your Life
Death
Walker died of hypertension on May 25, 1919, at the age of 51, in Villa Lewaro.
In 1981, Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company ceased operations. A line of cosmetics and hair care products bearing the name Madam CJ Walker Beauty Culture is available at Sephora retailers.
Walker left one-third of his estate to his daughter, who would also be known as an important part of the Harlem Renaissance, and the rest to various charities. Walker’s funeral took place at Villa Lewaro, and he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
Legacy and TV show
In 1927, the Walker Building, an arts center that Walker began working on before his death, opened in Indianapolis. An important center of African-American culture for decades, it is now a registered National Historic Landmark. In 1998, the United States Postal Service issued a Walker stamp as part of the “Black Heritage” series.
Walker’s life is depicted in a 2020 TV movie Self Madewith Octavia Spencer portraying Walker.
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- I want the great mass of my people to take more pride in their personal appearance and give their hair proper attention.
- There wouldn’t be a hair growing business today if I hadn’t started it.
- You may say that I have gone ahead and caused others to awaken to their duty to help worthy causes for the good of the race.
- I am a girl from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to cook in the kitchen. And from there I promoted myself in the business of making hair products and preparations.
- It is the greatest country under the sun. But we will not allow our love for the country, our patriotic loyalty to cause us to weaken even in our protest against wrong and injustice.
- One night I had a dream, and in that dream a big black man appeared to me and told me what to do with my hair. I decided I would start selling it.
- Persistence is my motto!
- I am not content to earn money for myself. I am trying to provide employment to hundreds of women of my race.
- [Perseverance] gave us the telegraph, telephone and wireless. It gave the world Abraham Lincoln, and the freedom of the race.
- I am not ashamed of my humble beginnings. Don’t think because you have to go to the washtub that you’re not a girl!
- There is no royal road that scatters flowers to success. And if there is, I haven’t found it because if I’ve achieved anything in life it’s because I’m willing to work hard.
- I started by giving myself a head start.
- I have to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I did it! Don’t sit back and wait for opportunities to come. Get up and make them.
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