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(b. December 23, 1867, Delta, La.; d. May 25, 1919, New York, N.Y.),
American entrepreneur who developed special hair care products and
techniques for black women.
Also known as: C. J. Walker, Sarah Walker, Madame C. J. Walker,
Sarah Breedlove, Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker
(1867-1918)
Businesswoman
Born to indigent former slaves Owen and Minerva Breedlove, Sarah Walker grew up in poverty on the Burney plantation in Delta, Louisiana, working in the cotton fields from sunrise to sunset. Uneducated in her youth, she learned as an adult to read and write. At 14, she married Moses McWilliams who was reportedly killed by a white lynch mob two years after their daughter A'Lelia's birth in 1885.
Walker worked as a domestic until she took several risks as an entrepreneur in black woman's hair care products. To meet the needs of women who did not have running water, supplies or equipment, Walker created a hot comb with specially spaced teeth to soften or straighten black hair, as well as her Wonderful Hair Grower for women who had experienced hair loss through improper care.
Business differences ended her marriage to C. J. Walker, a newspaperman whose advertising and mail order knowledge contributed to the business.
Walker was the first woman to sell products via mail order, to organize a nationwide membership of door-to-door agents, The Madame C. J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America, as well as to open her own beauty school, the Walker College of Hair Culture.
She and her daughter A'lelia established a chain of beauty parlors throughout the U.S., the Caribbean, and South America.
By 1914, company earnings grossed over a million dollars. In addition to her substantial contributions to black women's education, Walker owned a house in Harlem, dubbed the "Dark Tower," and Villa Lewaro, a neo-Palladian-style, 34-room mansion designed by Vetner Woodson Tandy, the first registered black architect. Walker's homes were frequented by Harlem Renaissance notables after her death in 1919 when her daughter took over the helm. Walker's empire, in keeping with her wishes, has since been exclusively managed only by her female descendants. In 1976, Villa Lewaro was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. |
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