Madame C.J. Walker Science by: Selena

Birth Madame C.J. Walker was born in 1867 in poverty- stricken, rural Louisiana. Her birth name was Sarah Breedlove; a daughter of former slaves. She was orphaned at the age of 7. Walker and her sister survived by working in the cotton fields of Delta and Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Early Age She married at the age of 14 and her only daughter was born in After her husband’s death two years later, she traveled to St. Louis to join her four brothers who had established themselves as barbers.

Reason of Accomplishments During the 1890’s, Sarah began to suffer from a scalp ailment that caused her to lose some of her hair. Embarrassed by her appearance, she experimented with a variety of homemade remedies and products made by another woman named Amie Malone (an entrepreneur). In 1905, Sara became a sales agent for Malone and moved to Denver, where she married Charles Joseph Walker. Changing her name to Madame C.J. Walker, she founded her own business and began selling Madame C.J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning, and healing formula. To promote her products she embarked an exhausting sale drive throughout the South and Southeast selling her products door to door, giving the most rations and working on sales and marketing strategies. In 1908, she opened a college in Pittsburgh to train her “hair culturist”.

Died Madame C.J. Walker’s aggressive marketing strategies combined with relentless ambition led her to be labeled as the first known African American woman to become a self-made millionaire. Having made a fortune in fifteen years, this pioneer business woman died at the age of 52.

How it Effects our Lives Today: If she didn’t make those products for our hair, our hair would probably be falling out or would be very nappy.

References en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_C_J_Walker