Madam C.J. Walker: History's first female self-made millionaire
Sarah Breedlove was born into a family of former slaves. However, as thriving entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, she blazed a trail for black America.
Image: Madam C.J Walker | Public Domain
According to Guinness World Records, Madam C.J. Walker, who made her fortune developing and selling hair care products for black women, was the first female self-made millionaire in history.
However, Walker was much more than just a successful entrepreneur - she was also an icon. She found fame and fortune in an era where opportunities for women of her demographic were desperately limited.
She gave back to the African-American community with her philanthropic activities - including donating to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). She also financially supported the construction of a YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) branch in Indianapolis.
Nonetheless, her achievements remain little-known outside the United States. Below, we at Sky HISTORY tell her rags-to-riches story. How did a little girl born into a family of former slaves become one of the pre-eminent black businesspeople of her age?
From a free child to a young widow
Madam C.J. Walker’s birth name was Sarah Breedlove. She was born on 23rd December 1867 as the fifth child of Louisiana parents Owen and Minerva Breedlove.
On 1st January 1863, the then-US President Abraham Lincoln issued his second Emancipation Proclamation. This abolished slavery in the Confederate States, which had declared secession from the United States in 1861, sparking the American Civil War.
As a result, Sarah was the Breedloves’ first child born outside of slavery. However, both her parents had died by the time she reached the age of seven, leaving her an orphan. As a 10-year-old, she moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi to reside with her older sister, Louvenia.
Unfortunately, this also meant cohabiting with Louvenia’s husband Jesse Powell, who abused Sarah. To escape this mistreatment, she married Moses McWilliams in 1882. On 6th June 1885, the couple welcomed their daughter Lelia, but Moses sadly passed away a couple of years later.
Making useful contacts in St. Louis
In 1888, the widowed Sarah relocated with Lelia to St. Louis, Missouri, where Sarah’s elder brothers were already working as barbers. As was typical for many African-American women during this period, she took up work as a washerwoman.
Sarah also garnered plenty of contacts who would eventually help her to turn a corner. She attended St Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church and met members of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).
In 1894, Sarah married her second husband, John Davis. She left him about a decade later, after he had been unfaithful to her. In 1906, Sarah got hitched yet again - this time, to newspaper advertising salesman Charles Joseph Walker. As you can probably gather from his name alone, he played a big part in his wife’s emergence as a titan of the beauty industry.
The iconic moniker ‘Madam C.J. Walker’ is coined
Sarah’s barber brothers certainly weren’t the only factor behind her growing interest in hair care. She lived at a time when indoor plumbing was far from the norm in homes across the United States. As a result, many Americans - Sarah included - did not wash their hair frequently compared to modern standards.
This made Sarah one of many black women suffering scalp disorders contributing to hair loss. This condition led Sarah to test various potential remedies on herself. These included the Poro haircare line promoted by black entrepreneur Annie Turnbo Malone. Sarah even became a sales agent for Malone - but it wasn’t long before the former started preparing to launch her own hair care product.
It is thought that Walker’s husband Charles encouraged her to advertise this product under the ‘Madam C.J. Walker’ brand. The product itself was called ‘Madam C.J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower’. While its exact composition is unknown, the ointment’s key ingredient is said to have been sulphur.
What made Madam C.J. Walker a master marketer?
Putting sulphur in a hair care product wasn’t novel at the time. In fact, the practice dated back centuries - and Malone even accused Walker of copying her own winning formula. What made Madam C.J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower stand out was not so much the product itself but instead how it was marketed.
In this era, black women were under pressure to conform to a ‘white’ form of beauty. Conversely, in advertisements of her Wonderful Hair Grower, Walker included before-and-after images of herself to show what results her customers could expect. These ads were placed in independent black newspapers, ensuring that Walker would get her message straight through to her target market.
Essentially, Walker portrayed herself as not merely a businessperson but also someone other African-American women could identify with. This was doubtless aided by her tendency to sell her products door-to-door. By meeting potential customers in person, she was able to teach them how to use these products exactly as they were meant to be used.
How Madam C.J. Walker left a lasting legacy
As Walker garnered more and more wealth, she increasingly used it to pursue causes crucial to the black community. In 1917, she asked African-American architect Vertner Tandy to design a mansion for her. This became known as Villa Lewaro, and was assembled in the New York village of Irvington.
Walker intended Villa Lewaro to host meetings between members of the black community. A similar role was played by the Dark Tower townhouse after Lelia persuaded her mother to buy this property in New York City’s Harlem neighbourhood. The Dark Tower became a hive of cultural activity during the 1920s ‘Harlem Renaissance’.
Madam C.J. Walker died on 25th May 1919. Kidney failure and hypertension (high blood pressure) contributed to her unexpected death at the age 51. Lelia inherited the Madam C.J. Walker Company, which remained on the scene for decades afterwards.
Netflix subscribers might remember seeing esteemed actress Octavia Spencer portraying Walker in the 2020 TV series Self Made. This series was itself adapted from the 2001 biography On Her Own Ground, written by Walker’s great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles.
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