The three moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, in , where Sarah picked cotton and was likely employed doing household work, although no documentation exists verifying her employment at the time.
At age 14, to escape both her oppressive working environment and the frequent mistreatment she endured at the hands of her brother-in-law, Sarah married a man named Moses McWilliams. On June 6, , Sarah gave birth to a daughter, A'Lelia. Louis, where Sarah's brothers had established themselves as barbers.
She also attended public night school whenever she could. While in St. Louis, Breedlove met husband Charles J.
Walker, who worked in advertising and would later help promote her hair care business. During the s, Sarah developed a scalp disorder that caused her to lose much of her hair, and she began to experiment with both home remedies and store-bought hair care treatments in an attempt to improve her condition.
In , she was hired as a commission agent by Annie Turnbo Malone — a successful, Black, hair-care product entrepreneur — and she moved to Denver, Colorado. While there, Sarah's husband, Charles, helped her create advertisements for a hair care treatment for African Americans that she was perfecting. Her husband also encouraged her to use the more recognizable name "Madam C.
Walker," by which she was thereafter known. In Walker and her husband traveled around the South and Southeast promoting her products and giving lecture demonstrations of her "Walker Method" — involving her own formula for pomade, brushing and the use of heated combs. As profits continued to grow, in Walker opened a factory and a beauty school in Pittsburgh, and by , when Walker transferred her business operations to Indianapolis, the Madam C.
Walker Manufacturing Company had become wildly successful, with profits that were the modern-day equivalent of several million dollars. In Indianapolis, the company not only manufactured cosmetics but also trained sales beauticians.
In turn, they promoted Walker's philosophy of "cleanliness and loveliness" as a means of advancing the status of African Americans. A relentless innovator, Walker organized clubs and conventions for her representatives, which recognized not only successful sales, but also philanthropic and educational efforts among African Americans. Madam C. Only one is factual, sort of, but the amazing story behind it and how Madam Walker used that accomplishment to help others as a job creator and philanthropist might be jarring — and surprisingly empowering — even to the skeptics.
I know it was for me in revisiting her life for this column. While the rest of her siblings had been born on the other side of emancipation, Sarah was free.
But by 7, she was an orphan toiling in those same cotton fields. Now that Reconstruction, too, was dead in the South, Sarah moved north to St. In , Sarah tried marrying again, but her second husband, John Davis, was less than reliable, and he was unfaithful. At 35, her life remained anything but certain. Who is going to take care of your little girl?
As a result, Sarah and many other women were going bald because they washed their hair so infrequently, leaving it vulnerable to environmental hazards such as pollution, bacteria and lice. Louis Clarion. A little context and review: Along the indelible color line that court cases like Plessy v. Ferguson drew, blacks in turn-of-the-century America were excluded from most trade unions and denied bank capital, resulting in trapped lives as sharecroppers or menial, low-wage earners.
One of the only ways out, as my colleague Nancy Koehn and others reveal in their study of Walker, was to start a business in a market segmented by Jim Crow. Hair care and cosmetics fit the bill. At Lelia's urging, Walker purchased property in New York City in , with the belief that a base in that city would be important. In she moved to a luxurious town-house she had built in Harlem, and a year later to an estate called Villa Lewaro she had constructed at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.
Although Walker and her daughter lived well, they carefully managed each aspect of their business, whose headquarters remained in Indianapolis, and gave to a number of philanthropic charity organizations.
According to rumor, Walker's first husband was lynched killed by a group of people acting outside of the law. Perhaps it was partially for this reason that Walker supported antilynching legislation laws and gave generously to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP , eventually willing that organization her estate in Irvington-on-Hudson.
The Walkers generously supported religious, educational, charitable, and civil rights organizations. Walker did not listen to her doctors' warnings that her fast-paced life was hurting her health. On May 25, , when she was fifty-one years old, she died of hypertension high blood pressure.
Her daughter, Lelia, took over her role as president of the Madame C. Walker Manufacturing Company. Bundles, A'Lelia Perry. New York: Scribner, Lasky, Kathryn. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, Lommel, Cookie. Madam C. Los Angeles: Melrose Square, McKissack, Pat. Walker: Self-Made Millionaire. Hillside, NJ: Enslow, Taylor, Marian. New York: Chelsea Juniors, Yannuzzi, Della A. Walker: Self-Made Businesswoman. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, Toggle navigation.
Walker Biography Madame C. Walker Biography. Struggling childhood Madame C. Develops hair care products By the time Sarah was in her late thirties, she was dealing with hair loss because of a combination of stress and damaging hair care products. Business booms Walker's business continued to expand. Charity and legacy Although Walker and her daughter lived well, they carefully managed each aspect of their business, whose headquarters remained in Indianapolis, and gave to a number of philanthropic charity organizations.
User Contributions: 1. I really love this website, it gives great information! Especially for younger people like me. It's easy to understand, and great to take notes off of. Thanks for making all my projects about famous people great! Go Madame C. Thanks so much! Omg I would love to invent my own hair product thats so cool like seriously.
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