Madam C. J Walker Research Paper

Madam C.J. Walker

Madam C.J. Walker was one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire. She was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867. Walker was orphaned at six, married at fourteen, and widowed at twenty with a two-year-old daughter to care for. She resettled in St. Louis and went to work as a laundress. Her early years reflected patterns that were all too common for black women in her generation.

During the 1890s, Breedlove began to suffer from a scalp ailment called alopecia, which causes hair loss. At first she tried existing hair products to relieve her problem, before beginning to develop her own remedies. She sold her homemade products directly to black women, using a personal approach that helped win her customers and eventually a fleet of loyal saleswomen. Breedlove met her second husband Charles J. Walker, who worked in advertising and would later help promote her hair care business. In 1905,

She promoted female talent: the charter of her company stated that only a woman could serve as president. She founded charities that included educational scholarships and donations to homes for the elderly, the NAACP, and the National Conference on Lynching, among other organizations focused on improving the lives of African-Americans. She also donated the largest amount of money by an African-American for the construction of an Indianapolis YMCA in 1913.

Madam C.J. Walker died of hypertension on May 25, 1919, at age 51, at the estate home she had built for herself in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. At the time of her death, Walker was sole owner of her business, which was valued at more than $1 million. Today, Walker is widely credited as one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire. When she died, she left ⅓ of her estate to her daughter, A 'Lelia Walker, who would also become well-known as an important part of the cultural Harlem