Madam C.J. Walker: The First Self-Made Female Millionaire

by Kat Mayfield
​posted 12/31/18

​Madam C. J. Walker was an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur in the early twentieth century. She founded her own company called Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, which created haircare products marketed to black women.  She is credited as being the first female self-made millionaire. This was a remarkable accomplishment because it occurred just after the abolishment of slavery when people of color did not have access to the same opportunities a white person would have had, and women of all races were greatly oppressed, especially black women. It is extraordinary that Walker, a woman of color, could break racial and gender boundaries to achieve such a high level of success. Walker has since become an icon because of her prolific business success and notable activism and philanthropic work towards helping women, children, and the black community.

Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, in Delta, Louisiana. Her parents were both recently freed slaves who had become sharecroppers She was one of six children and the first of her siblings to be born into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation. At the age of seven, following the death of both parents, Walker moved to Mississippi to live with her sister.[1] She began working as a farm laborer, picking cotton and doing domestic work as well. She married at the age of fourteen to escape her abusive brother-in-law. After the death of her husband, she and her daughter moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, where her brothers lived and worked as barbers. There, Walker became a laundress, earning less than two dollars a day; yet, she was determined to save as much as she could for her daughter’s education. At some point during this time, Walker remarried. She became actively involved in the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Association of Colored Women. Both of these groups greatly inspired Walker, giving her a sense of community amongst other black women and helping her to see a brighter future for both her daughter and herself. It was during this time that Walker began suffering from scalp conditions such as severe dandruff and hair loss. With the advice of her barber brothers, she began experimenting with different scalp and hair products, as well as other homemade remedies, to help her scalp ailments and promote hair growth.[2]

One of the products she used was produced by Poro Company, which was owned by a woman named Annie Turnbo Malone. Walker found inspiration in Malone, becoming a sales agent for the Poro Company, and she became a mentor to Walker until she decided to start her own company. In 1905, Walker left her second husband and relocated to Denver, Colorado, where she met her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker. During this marriage she adopted the name Madam C.J. Walker. Both she and her husband thought it would be better for her business if her name and her company’s name sounded dignified.[3] She began her hair care business by traveling “for a year and a half on a dizzying crusade throughout the heavily black South and Southeast, selling her products door to door, demonstrating her scalp treatments in churches and lodges, and devising sales and marketing strategies.”[4] Walker’s business was successful and “may have catered primarily to an African American clientele, yet her ideas and methods—such as personal charisma combined with an army of ‘beauty evangelists,’ as well as appealing and effective products that inspired consumer loyalty—held sway over the popularization of beauty products that were just emerging for all women, black as well as white.”[5] The success of the company led Walker to expand her business across the southern and eastern United States.

In 1908, she opened a beauty parlor and college called Lelia College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to train women in how to care for black women’s hair. An office and salon were also opened in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Walker relocated the base of her business to Indianapolis, Indiana and established the headquarters of the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company.[6] A factory, school for training, salon, and laboratory for research and the testing of products were also opened in Indianapolis. Her company then expanded into parts of the Caribbean and Central America, including Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Panama, and Costa Rica. Walker, a firm believer in helping the advancement of women, hired mostly women to work within her company, including important management and staff positions. Over the course of several years, thousands of women were hired and trained as sales agents.[7] 

Giving these jobs to women so that they could have better employment and opportunities demonstrates Walker’s concern with women’s rights and is further shown in her activism and philanthropy work. After the success of her business, Walker became an activist and philanthropist for black communities. She donated to many funds and organizations that focused largely on children and women, especially in regards to education. Walker helped raise funds for opening a YMCA for the black community in Indianapolis and donated to scholarship funds at black universities across the country where she sometimes gave lectures about political and social issues. During WWI, she encouraged the training of black soldiers. She was also an executive member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and made large donations to the organization, particularly to support their anti-lynching fund and the preservation of historical landmarks such as Frederick Douglass’s house.[8] In 1917, Walker went to Washington D.C. advocating for federal anti-lynching legislation and organized silent protests in New York to fight for change. She was a member of the National Negro Business League that promoted African American businesses. Walker made donations to the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and also created her own state clubs for the women who worked within her company and held conventions to reward their business success, political activism, and encouraged their other entrepreneurial endeavors.[9] After her death at the age of fifty-one, on May 25, 1919, Walker’s charitable work continued as she left large amounts of her fortune to orphanages and other charitable intuitions. Her will also specified that two-thirds of her estate’s future net profits would go to charities.

Madam C.J. Walker defied the racial and gender oppression of her time by building an exceptionally successful business. Through her business she created jobs for black women, encouraged women to get an education, and to believe in themselves and what they could achieve. I first learned about Walker in a business class when I was in high school. I was immediately impressed by what she was able to accomplish in a short amount of time with her business and found it surprising that despite her achievements she is not as well-known as other entrepreneurs that accomplished similar success. Walker’s achievements and ability to rise above racial and gender barriers continues to impress and inspire many.
Kat Mayfield is currently a student at the University of North Georgia. She has yet to declare a major and is weighing several different possibilities. Before coming to UNG, she attended the Savannah College of Art and Design majoring in fashion marketing. Her interest includes film, photography, painting, literature, pop culture, and true crime. When she has the time, she enjoys escaping to far off places. Kat hopes to one day have a career that makes a difference in society, particularly for groups of people who are often marginalized, face discrimination, and those whose voices are not heard.
[1] “Madam C.J. Walker Biography.” Biography.com, A&E Television Networks, 2018, www.biography.com/people/madam-cj-walker-9522174,
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Bundles, A’Lelia. “Madam C.J. Walker: A Brief Biographical Essay.” madamcjwalker.com, n.d., www.madamcjwalker.com/bios/madam-c-j-walker/.
[5] Lagace, Martha. “HBS Cases: Beauty Entrepreneur Madam Walker.” hbswk.hbs.edu, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, 25 June 2007, hbswk.hbs.edu/item/hbs-cases-beauty-entrepreneur-madam-walker.
[6] “Madam C.J. Walker Biography.”
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.

​Image: Madam C.J. Walker, circa 1905-1919. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.
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