By: Adrianna Dunn
Sarah Breedlove (later Madam C.J. Walker) was born on December 23, 1867, on a plantation in Delta, Louisiana where she lived and worked as a farm laborer and laundress. Orphaned at seven years old when her parents passed away, she lived and worked with her sister in the cotton fields until age fourteen. She would then marry Moses McWilliams in order to escape her abusive brother-in-law. Moses McWilliams passed away in 1887, leaving Walker a single mother of their two-year-old daughter, Lelia (later A’Lelia). In 1889, Walker and A’Lelia moved to St. Louis, Missouri where her brothers worked as barbers.
unfortunate circumstances that led to the start of something great
In the 1890s, Walker began losing her hair due to a scalp ailment and started experimenting with different home remedies, along with a product made by a fellow-entrepreneur, Annie Malone. Walker began working for Malone as a sales agent until she moved to Denver a year later. She then married Charles Joseph Walker and changed her name to “Madam C.J. Walker,” although the pair would later divorce. After marrying and changing her name, she launched her own line of hair care products, known as, “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.”
the business takes off
Madam Walker traveled throughout the South and Southeast for a year and a half, advertising her products and expanding her customer base. In 1908, she moved to Pittsburgh where she built a beauty school and factory. In 1910, she left the management of the Pittsburgh branch to her daughter and moved the headquarters to Indianapolis, where there was access to railroads and more African-American customers.
“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.”
In Indianapolis, she built a factory, training school, and salon. Her hair care products would become known as the “Walker System.” In 1916, walker moved to Harlem to work from her New York office and left the Indianapolis branch to her factory forelady and former school teacher, Ransom and Alice Kelly.
giving back to the black community
“This is the greatest country under the sun,” she told them. “But we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice. We should protest until the American sense of justice is so aroused that such affairs as the East St. Louis riot be forever impossible.”
Once Walker moved to New York she became involved in the NAACP’s anti-lynching movement, encouraging those who worked for her to do the same. Walker traveled to the White House in 1917 with a group of Harlem leaders, advocating for anti-lynching legislation after a white mob killed over 36 blacks in St. Louis.
Walker founded the National Negro Cosmetics Manufacturers Association in order to empower those she employed and give them a sense of belonging. She also contributed to the YMCA, made generous donations to educational causes and black charities, along with many other organizations.
Madam C.j. walker’s legacy
“There is no royal flower-strewn path to success, and if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.”
In Walker’s last year, her sales surpassed $500,000 and her total worth topped $1 million, including her New York mansion, Villa Lewaro. Walker passed away in 1919 at the age of 51, leaving behind a legacy of black female entrepreneurship and perseverance.
Adrianna Dunn, at the time of this post, is a second-year law student at Penn State Dickinson Law. She is from Wheeling, West Virginia, and is a graduate of West Virginia University. Adrianna is the current President of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Treasurer of the Women’s Law Caucus, and a Research Assistant for Professor Prince.
Sources
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/madame-c-j-walker
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/madam-cj-walker
https://madamcjwalker.com/about/
Photo Sources
https://images.app.goo.gl/NeY1MGPexje9aJMZ9
https://images.app.goo.gl/GgWBuKCQcW43s8PK8
https://images.app.goo.gl/pJbcFpzZgaQ1Y97M6
https://images.app.goo.gl/ZRUBwRs2vNUH3MFu5
