Sarah Breedlove Walker

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Noliwe M. Rooks. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1996.

Sarah Breedlove Walker (1867-1919): The Self-Made American Business Woman

Walker has been described as a grassroots saleswoman.  Born to freed slaves, she built the largest African American owned business in America.  She began her career working for Annie Turnbo Malone, a hair products entrepreneur.  Walker sold the Malone products at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.  By 1905, Walker was creating her own specialized hair products for African American hair.  Her husband Charles J. Walker encouraged her to use the name “Madame C. J. Walker” and create her own unique advertisements promoting her products.  By 1910 she built a company known as Madame C. J. Walker Laboratories to manufacture cosmetics and train sales beauticians.  These products became wildly successful, and the company was one of the largest employers of African American women.  Walker was the first self-made female American to become a millionaire.


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A reproduction of one of Madame C. J. Walker's advertisements.