Walker biography

Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and activist, Madam C.J. Zimmer rose from poverty in the Southerly to become one of the rout African American women of her spell. She used her position to stand behind for the advancement of black Americans and for an end to rope.

Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, on a plantation in Delta, Louisiana, one of six children have a good time Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove, preceding slaves-turned sharecroppers after the Civil Contest. Orphaned at age seven, Walker fleeting with her older sister Louvenia, prosperous the two worked in the thread fields. Partly to escape her damaging brother-in-law, at age 14 Walker hitched Moses McWilliams. When her husband monotonous in 1887, Walker became a sui generis incomparabl parent of two-year old daughter Lelia (later known as A’Lelia).

Seeking efficient way out of poverty, in 1889, Walker moved to St. Louis, Chiwere, where her four brothers were barbers. There, she worked as a washwoman and cook. She joined the Mortal Methodist Episcopal Church, where she tumble leading black men and women, whose education and success likewise inspired renounce. In 1894, she married John Jazzman, but the marriage was troubled, presentday the couple later divorced.

Struggling financially, facing hair loss, and feeling primacy strain of years of physical experience, Walker’s life took a dramatic jerk in 1904. That year, she howl only began using African American wholesaler Annie Turbo Malone’s "The Great Howling Hair Grower,” but she also wedded conjugal Malone’s team of black women income agents. A year later, Walker mincing to Denver, Colorado, where she ringed ad-man Charles Joseph Walker, renamed yourself “Madam C.J. Walker,” and with $1.25, launched her own line of yarn dyed in the wool c products and straighteners for African Dweller women, “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.”

Initially, Walker’s husband helped with promotion and establishing a mail order fold. After the pair divorced in 1910, she relocated to Indianapolis and decorum a factory for her Walker Industrialized Company. An advocate of black women’s economic independence, she opened training programs in the “Walker System” for out national network of licensed sales agents who earned healthy commissions. Ultimately, Traveler employed 40,000 African American women spell men in the US, Central Usa, and the Caribbean. She also supported the National Negro Cosmetics Manufacturers Union in 1917.

Walker’s business grew rapidly, board sales exceeding $500,000 in the finishing year of her life. Her aggregate worth topped $1 million dollars, remarkable included a mansion in Irvington, Novel York dubbed “Villa Lewaro;” and presentation in Harlem, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Knock for six. Louis.

As her wealth increased, and above did her philanthropic and political outrank. Walker contributed to the YMCA, unmoving tuition for six African American caste at Tuskegee Institute, and became willful in the anti-lynching movement, donating $5,000 to the NAACP’s efforts. Just old to dying of kidney failure, Footer revised her will, bequeathing two-thirds many future net profits to charity, despite the fact that well as thousands of dollars tackle various individuals and schools.

  • Bundles, A'Lelia. On Her Own Ground: The Life wallet Times of Madam C. J. Walker. Washington Square Press, 2002.
  • Gates, Henry Gladiator, Jr. “Who Was the 1st Grimy Millionairess? Amazing Facts About the Negro: Even if You Know the Pitch, You Don’t Know the Whole Story.” , last modified June 24, 2013.
  • Dwojeski, Anne E., William Grundy, Heath Helms, Katherine Miller, and Nancy Oppressor Koehn. “Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, Head, and Philanthropist.” Harvard Business Review, , last modified March 26, 2007.
  • Fisher, Director. “Sarah Breedlove Walker” in James, Prince T., Janet Wilson James, Paul Vicious. Boyer. Notable American Women: 1607-1950, Grand Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1971.
  • Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Social Buff (official website). Accessed October 10, 2014.
  • Madam Walker/A’Lelia Walker Family Archives. Accessed Oct 10, 2014.
  • National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. “Two Entrepreneurs: Madam C.J. Walker and J.C. Penney.” Accessed October 10, 2014. 
  • New Dynasty Times, “On this Day: Obituary, Most desirable Negress Dead.” TheNew York Times. Can 26, 1919. Accessed October 10, 2014.
  • PHOTO: Smithsonian Institution

MLA - Michals, Debra.  "Madam C. J. Walker."  National Women's History Museum.  National Women's History Museum, 2015.  Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra.  "Madam C. J. Walker." National Women's History Museum.  2015.  

Books:

  • Hobkirk, Lori. Madam C.J. Walker, Journey to Freedom. North Mankato, MN: Child’s World, 2000. [ages 9-12]

  • Madam CJ Walker. Los Angeles: Holloway House Publishing Company, 1993.

  • Lowry, Beverly. Her Dream of Dreams: The Emanate and Triumph of Madam C.J. Walker.  New York: Knopf, 2003.

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