Walker, Madame C. J. (1867-1919)

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Walker, Madame C. J. (1867-1919)

In the field of black hair care, Madame C. J. Walker employed groundbreaking entrepreneurial, organizational, and marketing strategies to revolutionize the industry. At her death in 1919 Walker had amassed a fortune, making her the first African-American female millionaire.

Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 in Delta, Louisiana, Walker moved to St. Louis twenty years later in search of better social and economic opportunities. Widowed, with a two-year-old daughter, she struggled financially but was determined not to spend her entire life as a domestic. After moving to Denver in 1905 Walker's hair began to fall out and she experimented with several formulas until she stopped her hair loss. This encouraged her to develop and market her own product, the "Walker hair-grower," to black women throughout the Denver area. "My hair was coming in faster that it had ever fallen out. I tried it on my friends; it helped them. I made up my mind that I would begin to sell it." After much success with the product in Denver, Walker and her new husband, Charles Joseph Walker, began to market the product throughout the United States, South America, and the Caribbean. She soon developed an entire array of black hair care products that became simply known as the "Walker System," which included a shampoo, the "hair-grower," and a hot iron. Her method turned coarse hair into a straight and silky European-like hair.

To sell her products Walker hired black women (known as "Walker agents,") who went door-to-door dressed in white blouses and black skirts. This canvassing was supplemented by an intense advertising campaign in black newspapers and magazines across the country. Readers could hardly miss her ads which, like her products, carried her portrait. Later she established beauty parlors and beauty schools to acquaint people with her products and she also built factories and laboratories that manufactured her goods. This business approach enabled her to become the first black female millionaire.

In spite of her superb business acumen Walker was often criticized in the black community for trying to make black women look like white females. But she insisted that her products were not "straighteners," but rather a formula for a healthy scalp and manageable hair. After opening a second headquarters in Pittsburgh, Walker moved her company to Indianapolis in 1910, and then to New York City four years later as her gross revenues began to exceed $1 million annually. With her fortune Walker lived extravagantly, with massive real-estate investments in and around New York City. In spite of this extravagance, Walker was consistent in supporting a large number of black philanthropic endeavors, including the NAACP.

Walker's significance lies in the fact that she revolutionized and pioneered the black hair care industry which would eventually become a multi-billion dollar business. Hair care companies that had ignored the African-American consumer now began to develop and market products akin to Walker's. Walker died at the age of 51 after a brief illness.

—Leonard N. Moore