#madame walker

[dashingclaire]

Madam CJ And A’Lelia Walker Way In Harlem Is Finally Official

The Black hair trailblazers have been bestowed one of the city’s highest honors.

[leptoquark3]

Walker Theatre, Indianapolis, IN by Black History Album Via Flickr: The Walker Theatre was built by Madam C. J. Walker, America’s first black millionairess, after she was charged a higher price to attend another downtown theater because of her race. Vintage African American photography courtesy of Black History Album, The Way We Were. Follow Us On Twitter @blackhistoryalb

[thechildrensmuseum]

Sarah Breedlove Walker (1867-1919), better known as Madam C.J. Walker, was a central figure in the development of the African-American market for commercial beauty products. Shortly after the turn of the century, she developed a formula for hair growth and a steel straightening comb and ointment. Starting with door-to-door sales of these products, she built a business empire. Between incorporation in 1911 and her death in 1919, her holdings included a factory, beauty schools and a thousands of sales agents. Not only did the business bring her personal success, but it also opened up new job opportunities for African-American women as sales agents and "Beauty Culturists."  Madam Walker spent considerable time traveling, speaking, and supporting African-American causes. Among the institutions benefiting from her wealth were the Flanner House, Alpha Home, The Senate Avenue YMCA, and Bethel AME Church in Indianapolis, as well as the Tuskegee Institute, Mary McLeod Bethune's School, and the NAACP.

[h-baum-blog]

Madame C. J. Walker's dream

[theamericanparlor]

Madame C.J Walker The first African American Female Millionaire-Her Products are Still Sold Today

Born just two years after the end of the Civil War, orphaned by the time she was seven, married at fourteen, a mother at seventeen, and a widow at twenty. The story of Madame C.J. Walker, the first African American Female Millionaire.

When Lelia was in college, Sarah suffered from a scalp ailment that made her hair fall out. One night she had a dream, “…and in that dream a big black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair.” Though she had to send to Africa for some ingredients, Sarah mixed up the potion and within a few weeks her hair was growing faster than ever.

Calling it Madam Walker’s Miracle Hair Grower, she started selling it to her friends and her business blossomed. Starting her own business, she developed several more hair care products and traveled around the country, training her sales staff and educating them in the proper use of her products. She also began a mail order business, taking out ads in newspapers and local publications targeting the African American population. At a time when the average unskilled white worker was making forty five dollars a month, Sarah’s sales staff was generating individual incomes of one thousand dollars monthly.

Website for Madame C.J. Walker http://www.madamewalker.net/

[nukesoul-o]

Walker Theatre, Indianapolis, IN by Black History Album on Flickr.

The Walker Theatre was built by Madam C. J. Walker, America’s first black millionairess, after she was charged a higher price to attend another downtown theater because of her race.

[madamcjwalker-blog]

Madam C. J. Walker: "I got my start by giving myself a start!"