Mrs. C. J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, was the first American woman to become a self-made millionaire.

Sarah Breedlove was born on December 23, 1867, in Delta, a village in Madison Parish. Her parents, Owen and Minerva Anderson, were former slaves working in the cotton fields.2 Sarah had an older sister, Louvenia, and four brothers, Alexander, James, Solomon, and Owen Jr.; she was the first child in the family born after the Emancipation Proclamation. She was 7 years old when her mother died, and 10 years old when her father died. [Questionable information] Orphaned, she began working as a domestic in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with her older sister and her older sister’s husband, Jesse Powell.

At the age of 14, she married a laborer, Moses McWilliams, and gave birth to a daughter, Lelia, at the age of 16. Four years later, her husband died and she was left to support her household alone. She then moved up the Mississippi and settled in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1888, Sarah was reunited in St. Louis with three of her brothers, Alexander, James, and Solomon. She attended night school and found work as a laundress. She was determined to earn enough money to provide her daughter with a proper education.

As was common among black women of her time, Sarah suffered from severe dandruff and other scalp conditions, including baldness, due to skin disorders and the harsh chemicals used to clean hair and wash clothes. Other contributing factors were poor diet, illness, and infrequent bathing and washing at a time when most American homes lacked indoor plumbing, central heating, and electricity. Sarah wanted to remedy this problem.

Sarah initially learned hair care from her brothers, who were barbers in St. Louis. At the time of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, she became a commission agent selling products for Annie Malone, an African-American hair care entrepreneur who owned the Poro Company. Sales at the fair were a disappointment, as the African-American community had been largely ignored. While working for Malone, who would later become her greatest rival in the hair care industry, Sarah developed her newfound knowledge of the subject, creating and improving her own line of products. In July 1905, at the age of 37, Sarah and her daughter moved to Denver, Colorado, where she continued to sell products for Malone and to develop her own hair care business. A controversy developed between Annie Malone and Sarah, with Malone accusing Sarah of stealing his formula, a mixture of petroleum jelly and sulfur that had been used for a century.

After marrying Charles Walker in 1906, Sarah was known as Madam C. J. Walker. She billed herself as an independent hairdresser and cosmetic cream saleswoman. “Madam“ was adopted in reference to pioneering women in the French beauty industry. Her husband, who was also her business partner, provided advice on advertising and promotion. Sarah sold her products door to door, teaching other black women how to use them. In 1908, the couple moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they opened a beauty salon and established Lelia College to train “hairdressers.“ Lelia ran the day-to-day operations. As an advocate for economic independence for black women, Sarah opened training programs in the “Walker System“ for her nationwide network of licensed sales agents, who earned a handsome commission.

In 1910, Sarah moved her businesses to Indianapolis, where she established the headquarters of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. She first purchased a house and factory at 640 North West Street, then built a factory, a hair salon, a beauty school to train her salespeople, and a laboratory to help with research. She created a team that included Freeman Ransom, Robert Lee Brokenburr, Alice Kelly, and Marjorie Joyner, among others, to help run the growing business. Many of her employees, including those in key management and personnel positions, were women.

In addition to her business activities, C. J. Walker was involved in the defense of women’s and African-American rights. She helped fund several organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), for which she provided $5,000 in funding for an anti-lynching campaign. In 1918, she was elected vice president of the National Equal Rights League, founded by William Monroe Trotter. She is a symbolic figure of Afro-feminism.

In addition to her business activity, C. J. Walker is involved in defending the rights of women and African-Americans. In particular, she participated in the financing of several associations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), for which she financed a campaign against lynching with $5,000. In 1918, she was elected vice-president of the National Equal Rights League, founded by William Monroe Trotter. She is a symbolic figure of Afro-feminism.

Madam C. J. Walker is inscribed in the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

The African-American artist Faith Ringgold paid tribute to her in her quilt painting The Sunflowers Quilting Bee at Arles: The French Collection Part I, #4, 1991.

A stamp bearing her image was issued in 1998 by the United States Postal Service (USPS). It is part of a series dedicated to the history of African-Americans.

In 2020, a series produced by Netflix is ​​dedicated to him under the title Self Made: Inspired by the life of Madam C. J. Walker