Madam C.J. Walker
Madam C.J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was an African-American entrepreneur, philanthropist and political and social activist. She is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first female, self-made millionaire women in America. Walker made a fortune by designing and selling a line of beauty and hair care goods for black women through the company she created, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. At the time of her death, she was considered the richest African-American businesswoman and the richest black self-made woman in America. [1]
Contents
Solving Common Hair Problem on Black People
Madame C.J. Walker’s parents, Owen and Minerva, were sharecroppers of Louisiana who had been born into slavery. Walker, their fifth child, was the first to be born free in her family since the Declaration of Emancipation. Walker’s early childhood was characterized by hardship; she was orphaned at the age of six, married at the age of fourteen (Moses McWilliams, with whom she had a daughter, A'Lelia, in 1885), and became a widow at the age of twenty. [2]
Walker started to lose her hair in the 1890s. Her work in a laundry was likely to add to this issue as she was exposed to rough lye soap, dirt and hot steam. Yet, at the time, she was far from the first Black woman to suffer hair loss. Many households lived without indoor plumbing, so daily shampooing was not feasible and things like lice and toxins went unnoticed. Inadequate diet has also found it impossible to preserve healthy hair.
Moreover, many of the products used by Black women, such as ox marrow based products, are likely to have harmed hair and scalps. Some women wore their head wraps to cover their bald spots, but Walker didn't want to take that course. For one thing, such a costume would mark her lower social standing at a time when she was trying to elevate herself. Plus, it was normal to want a whole head of healthy hair. And afterwards, she began searching for a cure for her hair loss. [3]
Madam C.J. Walker’s Work and Contribution
Financially struggling, facing hair loss, and enduring the burden of years of hard labour, Walker's life took a sharp turn in 1904. That year, not only did she start using the African American businesswoman Annie Turnbo Malone's "The Great Wonderful Hair Grower," but she also joined Malone's squad of black women sales agents. A year later, Walker moved to Denver, Colorado, where she married ad-man Charles Joseph Walker, renamed "Madam C.J. Walker," and with $1.25, she launched her own brand of hair care and straighteners for African American women, called “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower”. [4]
Walker intended her products to help Black women, not to change them. Walker's early products, along with her hair grower, included Glossine (a pressing oil) and a vegetable shampoo. She encouraged her clients to shampoo more frequently and to follow her "Walker System", using a hair grower, oil and hot combs, to make their hair cleaner. However, while she popularized hot combs that straightened her hair, Walker's goal was not to change the look of black women's hair.
"I deplore such an impression because I have always held myself out as a hair culturist. I grow hair." Walker's range of products has expanded to include creams and soaps, but Walker has always remained focused on the wellbeing of her client's hair and supporting the individual, especially Black women, to take pride in themselves and their appearance. [5]
After Walker and her husband had divorced in 1910, she moved to Indianapolis and founded a factory for her Walker Manufacturing Company. As an advocate of black women's economic independence, she opened educational workshops about 'Walker System' for her nationwide network of registered sales agents who have received sound commissions. By the end of the day, Walker hired 40,000 African American women and men in the United States, Central America and the Caribbean. In 1917, she also created the National Black Cosmetics Manufacturing Association.
As her fortune grew, so did her philanthropy and political outreach. Walker donated to the YMCA, provided education to six African American students at the Tuskegee Institute, and became involved in the anti-Lynching movement, contributing $5,000 to the NAACP. Just before she died of kidney disease, Walker revised her will, leaving two-thirds of the potential net proceeds to charities, as well as thousands of dollars to various individuals and colleges. [6]
See also
Reference
- ↑ Madam C. J. Walker. en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ History.com Editors. Madam C. J. Walker. Oct 29, 2009. history.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Kettler, Sara. How Madam C.J. Walker Invented Her Hair Care Products. Feb 10, 2020. biography.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Michals, Debra, PhD. Madam C.J. Walker. womenshistory.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Kettler, Sara. How Madam C.J. Walker Invented Her Hair Care Products. Feb 10, 2020. biography.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Michals, Debra, PhD. Madam C.J. Walker. womenshistory.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.