Madam C. J. Walker

1867 - 1919

Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, in Louisiana, (later named) Madam C.J. Walker transformed herself from an uneducated enslaved child to one of the most accomplished, self-made women entrepreneurs of the twentieth century.

Born into slavery on a plantation in Louisiana, Sarah had a difficult childhood. Orphaned at age seven, she has left no choice but to marry at the young age of 14 in hope of some stability. When her husband died a few years later, Sarah moved to St. Louis to live and work with her four brothers who worked as barbers. She quickly made friends with members of St. Paul A.M.E. Church and the National Association of Colored Women.

In the 1890s, Sarah suffered from a scalp disease that caused her to go almost entirely bald. Continuing to experiment with natural home remedies, she moved to Denver and met her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker. Shortly after changing her birth name to Madam C.J. Walker, she founded her own hair care business and began selling Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower. Madam C.J. traveled through the deep south and southeast selling and promoting her products for nearly a year and a half before moving her home base to Pittsburgh and eventually in 1910 settling down in Indianapolis. Here she built a factory, salon, and training school for her growing business. She gained national attention when she donated $1000 to the building fund for the “colored” YMCA in Indianapolis.

In 1913, Madam C.J. traveled to Central America and the Caribbean to expand her hair care business. Soon after moving to New York in 1916, Madam C.J. became invested in social justice issues and found a particular interest in anti-lynching legislation. In 1917, Madam C.J. proposed the Madam C.J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America Convention- which was one of the first national meetings of businesswomen in the country.