Madam CJ Walker

Madam CJ Walker was born near Delta, Louisiana on December 23, 1867. Her birth name was Sarah Breedlove. Her parent’s Owen and Minerva were freed slaves and died from unknown causes. Sarah was the 5^th child and was the first in her family to be free born. Sarah became an orphan at the age of 7 when her parents died. She was sent to live with her sister Louivina and her brother in law. They all moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1877 where she picked cotton and was likely employed doing house hold work. 

Sarah got married to a man name Moses McWilliam and gave birth to a daughter name A’Lei, Moses died 2 years later. Madam and her daughter moved to St. Louis where Sarah her brothers were established as barbers. There Sarah had found work as a washerwoman earning $1.50 a day, enough to send her daughter to a city public school. While in St. Louis, Sarah met her second husband Charles J. Walker, who was known as a big time advertiser. He helped Sarah promote her hair products.

In 1890’s Sarah developed a scalp disorder that caused her to loose much of her hair and she began to experiment with both home and store bought remedies. In 1905, Madam was hired as a commission agent by Annie Turbine Malone (a successful, black hair care product entrepreneur) and moved to Denver, Colorado. Charles j Walker helped her create advertisement for hair care products use for African Americans. Charles J.  Walker  encourage  Sarah to use the more recognizable name Madam CJ Walker by which she was there after known as. In 1907, Walker and her husband traveled around the south and the southeast promoting her products and giving lectures demonstrations on her, involving her own formula for pomade brushing and the use of heated combs. In 1908, Walker opened a factory and a beauty school in Pittsburg. In 1910, Walker transferred her business operation to Indianapolis. The Madam CJ. Walker Manufacturing Company had become wildly successful with profits that were modern day. The company also trained sales beauticians.

The Walker agents became well known throughout the black communities of the United States, they promoted Walker philosophy of “cleanliness and loveliness” as a mean of advancing the status of African Americans. In 1919, Madam CJ Walker died in Irvington, Houston. Madam CJ Walker was best known for her hair care products and the straitening comb (hot comb). 

Monique