{"id":11057,"date":"2024-03-29T02:40:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T02:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/?p=11057"},"modified":"2024-03-29T02:40:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T02:40:08","slug":"sarah-breedlove-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/sarah-breedlove-walker\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Breedlove Walker: The First Self-made Female Millionaire in America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1905, 37-year-old Sarah Breedlove, the first free-born child from a family of Civil War era slaves, moved to Denver, Colorado. She had just $1.05 in her pocket and was intent on starting a business selling hair-care products that she created, primarily for Black women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breedlove sold her products door-to-door. She would teach other Black women how to groom and style their hair in their homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1908, Breedlove was successful enough to open a beauty school and factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, Breedlove moved her business headquarters to Indianapolis, Indiana. This was a city with access to railroads for broad distribution and a large African-American population.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time of her death in 1919, Breedlove’s hair-care company, the Madame C.J. Walker Company,<\/em> employed some 40,000 people. She had become the first independently wealthy female millionaire in American history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her net worth was in excess of $1 million. This is an estimated $18.1 million in 2023 dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMadam\u201d Sarah Breedlove Walker is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records<\/em> as the \u201cFirst self-made American woman millionaire who didn\u2019t inherit or marry into wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madam Walker, between 1905 and 1919<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Breedlove was born on December 23, 1867, near Delta, Louisiana, to Owen and Minerva (nee<\/em> Anderson) Breedlove. They were a family of sharecroppers that included an older sister, Louvenia, and four brothers: Alexander, James, Solomon, and Owen Jr. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Breedloves were the property of Robert W. Burney, owner of the Madison Parish Plantation<\/em>. (The Breedloves had worked the plantation since before the American Civil War<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah, however, was born after President Abraham Lincoln<\/a> signed the Emancipation Proclamation<\/em>. This made her the first free-born Breedlove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1872, Breedlove’s mother died, most likely from cholera. (A cholera epidemic traveled with river passengers up the Mississippi, affecting Tennessee and surrounding areas at that time.) Her father died a year later, making Breedlove an orphan by age seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the age of 10, Breedlove moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where she lived with her older sister, Louvenia, and her husband Jesse Powell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expected to contribute to the family income, Breedlove began working as a domestic servant. To her advantage, after the abolition of slavery, there was a great demand for domestic help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this left no time for formal education. A Sunday School literacy program organized by the National Association of Colored Women<\/em> provided instruction on how to read and write.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Marriage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1882, at the age of 14, Breedlove married Moses McWilliams who was an older man whose exact age is unknown. She did this to escape sexual abuse from her brother-in-law, Jesse Powell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breedlove and McWilliams had one daughter, A’Lelia (pronounced Ah-LEEL-ya), born on June 6, 1885. About two years later, McWilliams died\u2014leaving Breedlove a widow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A number of records connect Breedlove with a man named John Davis–even suggesting marriage–but the details are unclear.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motivation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1888, 20-year-old Breedlove and her three-year-old daughter moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Three of her brothers worked at a barber shop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She found work as a laundress. Although she rarely made more than a dollar a day, she remained determined to make enough money to provide her daughter with the formal education she never had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning in her teens, Breedlove had begun suffering severe dandruff and baldness: possibly alopecia<\/em>. This was not uncommon within poor communities with frequent illness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Blacks were forced to use harsh products for bathing and washing clothes. They had limited access to healthy foods and proper medication. Many accepted their situation as unchangeable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not Breedlove. Learning what she could from her brothers about hair care, she began experimenting with chemicals and household products, trying to find a cure.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madam C.J. Walker in an early automobile, before 1923<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Building a Career<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

About the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition<\/em> (\u201cWorld’s Fair<\/a>\u201d at St. Louis, in 1904), Breedlove began working as a sales representative for Annie Turnbo Malone. This was an African-American hair care entrepreneur, and owner of the Poro Company<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales at the exposition had been disappointing since the African-American community had largely ignored it. So Malone gave Breedlove the option of hitting the streets with her products. (She, herself, had started her business by selling door-to-door.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, while working for Malone, Breedlove continued experimenting with hair-care products based on what she’d learned from her three brothers. She was intent on developing her own product line for Black women, based on petroleum jelly and sulfur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July of 1905, the 37-year-old Breedlove and her 20-year-old daughter, moved to Denver, Colorado. There, she continued to distribute Annie Malone’s products\u2014while moving ahead with her own hair-care business for Black women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, to further her understanding of chemistry, she took a job as a cook to a local pharmacist who was happy to educate her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A short time later, however, Malone accused Breedlove of stealing her formula (also based in petroleum jelly and sulfur). Breedlove argued that Black women had been using some combination of petroleum jelly and sulfur for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later the following year, Breedlove marketed her first hair-care product: a scalp conditioning and healing formula called, \u201cWalker\u2019s Wonderful Hair Grower.\u201d She used the name of the man she’d married earlier that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Joseph Walker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1906, Breedlove again married. This time, it was to Charles Joseph Walker, a newspaper advertising salesman she met in St. Louis, Missouri.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While married to Walker, Breedlove adopted the name \u201cMadam\u201d C. J. Walker. This was a name she would use for the remainder of her life, particularly regarding her hair care business.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, her daughter assumed her step-father’s name, becoming, A’Lelia Walker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Door-to-Door, Mail-Order, the \u201cWalker System\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Breedlove-Walker officially launched her hair-care product line, she marketed herself as \u201cMadam\u201d C. J. Walker, \u201cindependent hairdresser and retailer of cosmetic creams.\u201d She is said to have adopted the title, \u201cMadam\u201d from the female pioneers of the French beauty industry<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a page from Anne Malone’s strategy book, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker likewise sold her products door-to-door. But unlike Malone, she taught other Black women how to groom and style their hair in their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1906, \u201cMadame\u201d Walker put her 21-year-old daughter in charge of the mail-order operation in Denver. Then, Walker and her husband traveled throughout the southern and eastern states to introduce Walker’s hair care line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1908, Walker and her husband relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There, they opened a beauty salon and established Lelia College<\/em> to train what Walker designated, \u201chair culturists.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an advocate of Black women’s economic independence, she then opened training programs based on the \u201cWalker System.\u201d This was for the national network of licensed sales agents she’d established (who earned handsome commissions).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1909, A’Lelia closed the mail-order business in Denver and joined her mother in Pittsburgh.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indianapolis and Harlem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1910, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker established a new home base in Indianapolis, Indiana. She left A’Lelia to run day-to-day operations in Pittsburgh.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same year, Walker established the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company <\/em>in Indianapolis. She initially purchased a house and factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She then built a factory, hair salon, and beauty school to train her sales agents. Then, she added a laboratory to help develop better products.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1911<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Walker then assembled an experienced staff to assist in managing her thriving company. They included: an attorney, businessman, and civic activist Freeman Ransom to serve as legal counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also an attorney and civil rights<\/a> leader Robert Lee Brokenburr to serve as General Manager. And lastly, a businesswoman, hair-care entrepreneur, educator, activist, and philanthropist, named Marjorie Joyner (to serve as advisor).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Most of her company’s employees–including those in key managerial and staff positions–were women.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1913, A’Lelia persuaded her mother to open an office and beauty salon in New York City’s growing Harlem neighborhood<\/a>\u2014the new center of Black \u201cAfrican-American\u201d culture in America. Her salon became a cultural meeting place almost overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success, Expansion, Rivalry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Between 1911 and 1919 were the years that were the height of her business success. During this time, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker and her company employed several thousand women as sales agents (\u201chair culturists\u201d) for its line of hair-care products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1917, the company claimed to have trained nearly 20,000 women. All of them were required to know the Walker Beauty School<\/em> manual.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside the factory setting, Walker’s agents focused on door-to-door sales. They visited homes around the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They gave out free samples of \u201cMadam\u201d Walker’s patented hair pomade and other products (packaged in tin containers carrying her image). In many cases, they demonstrated the products in their homes–as well as in neighborhood beauty salons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1913, Walker was distributing her products throughout the Caribbean and Central America as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shrewd businesswoman, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker understood the power of advertising and brand awareness. She advertised heavily (primarily in African-American newspapers and magazines like the Guardian<\/em> and the Enterprise<\/em>). She also made frequent personal appearances to promote her products.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1917, Walker and her line of hair-care products were phenomenally popular across the US, Caribbean, and Central America. Many competitors tried to copy her product formulas and sales model–including Annie Turnbo Malone.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Annie Turnbo Malone pictured in a souvenir booklet about her cosmetology school, Poro College in St Louis, 1920<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Support of Black Women Everywhere<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the founding of the National Association of Colored Women<\/em>, in 1917, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker decided to use her considerable clout and celebrity for the betterment of Black women everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to training in sales and personal grooming, Walker showed other Black women how to budget their money, start their own businesses, and become financially independent<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1917, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker began organizing her sales representatives into state and local clubs. The result of which was the establishment of the National Beauty Culturists and Benevolent Association of Madam C. J. Walker Agents.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of that year, the Association<\/em> held its first annual conference, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, drawing 200 attendees. The conference is believed to have been one of the first national gatherings of female entrepreneurs to discuss business, commerce, and networking.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the conference, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker distributed prizes to those women who sold the most products and brought in the most new sales agents. She rewarded those who made the largest charitable contributions to their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activism and Philanthropy  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As \u201cMadam\u201d Walker’s wealth and notoriety grew, she became more vocal about her views. Particularly as the first freeborn Black woman from a family of slaves. She also became more active in contributing to the Black community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1902, Walker helped raise funds to establish a branch of the YMCA<\/em> in Indianapolis’ Black community. She pledged $1,000 to the building of Senate Avenue YMCA<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the first 50 years of its existence, the Senate Avenue<\/em> YMCA <\/em>branch had the largest membership of any African-American YMCA<\/em> in the US. Membership climbed from 17 in 1904 to 3000 during the 1940s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major Contributions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Between 1912 and 1919, \u201cMadam\u201d Walker contributed a large portion of her wealth to a dozen or more worthwhile projects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n