Madame C. J. Walker

Madame C. J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove from Owen and Minerva Breedlove on a cotton plantation. Her parents were recently freed slaves; therefore, Sarah, the 5th child, was free born. In 1875, her mother died, and her father passed the following year due to unknown causes, which made Sarah a 7 year old orphan. Sarah was sent to live with her sister Louvinia and brother-in law. In 1877, the three moves to Vicksburg, Mississippi where Sarah picked cotton and most likely employed with household work. At age 14, Sarah married a man named Moses McWilliams to escape her harshed working environment and mistreatment from her stepbrother. On June 6, 1885, she gave birth to her daughter A'Leila. After her husband dies 2 years later, she moves to St. Louis, Missouri. There, she worked as a washed woman for $1.50 a day-- just enough to send A'Leila to public school. Not long after, she meets her second husband, Charles J. Walker who was in advertising and later promoted her hair care business. During the 1890s, a scalp disorder caused her to lose much of her hair. As a result, she began experimenting with home remedies and store bought hair products to improve her condition. In 1905, Sarah was hired as a commission agent by Anne Malone--a successful black hair care product business woman--and moved to Denver, Colorado. While there, her husband Charles helped with advertisements and encourage her to use a more recognizable name, and that's how she got Madame C. J. Walker. In 1907, Walker and her husband traveled around the South and Southeast to give lecture demonstrations of the "Walker Method"--involving her own formula of ointment for the scalp and hair, brushing, and heated combs. Madame C. J. Walker opened a factory and beauty school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1908. In 1910, the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company became more successful when business operations moved to Indianapolis, Indiana where cosmetics were made and sale beauticians