Madam C. J. Walker

Madam C. J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, close to Delta, Louisiana. Her parents were Owen and Minerva (née Anderson) Breedlove. Breedlove had five siblings, who included an older sister, Louvenia, and four brothers: Alexander, James, Solomon, and Owen Jr. Robert W. Burney enslaved her older siblings and parents on his Madison Parish plantation; Sarah was the first child in her family born into freedom. Her mother died in 1872, likely from cholera; an epidemic had traveled with river passengers up the Mississippi, reaching Tennessee and related areas in 1873. Her father remarried but died a year later. "I had little or no opportunity when I started out in life, having been left an orphan and being without mother or father since I was seven years of age," Breedlove often recounted. Breedlove also stated that she had only three months of formal education, which she undertook during Sunday school literacy lessons at the church she attended during her earlier years. ==Personal life==

Marriage and family In 1882, at the age of 14, Breedlove married Moses McWilliams whose age was unknown, to escape abuse from her brother-in-law, Jesse Powell. Breedlove remarried in 1894, but left her second husband, John Davis, around 1903. In January 1906, Breedlove married Charles Joseph Walker, a newspaper advertising salesman she had known in St. Louis, Missouri. After this marriage, Breedlove began marketing herself as "Madam C. J. Walker". The couple divorced in 1912; Charles died in 1926. Lelia McWilliams adopted her stepfather's surname and became known as A'Lelia Walker. Religion Walker was a Christian; her faith had a significant influence on her philanthropy. Walker was a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. ==Career==

In 1888, Breedlove moved, with Lelia, to St. Louis, where three of her brothers lived. Breedlove found work as a laundress, earning barely more than a dollar a day. Breedlove was determined to make enough money to provide Lelia with formal education. During the 1880s, Breedlove lived in a community where Ragtime music was developed; she sang at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church and started to yearn for an educated life as she watched the community of women at her church. includes a container of Madame C.J. Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower in its permanent collection.|Madam C. J. Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower in the permanent collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis Initially, Breedlove learned about hair care from her brothers, who were barbers in St. Louis. After marrying Charles Walker in 1906, Breedlove marketed herself as "Madam C. J. Walker", an independent hairdresser and cosmetic cream retailer. ("Madam" was adopted from women pioneers of the French beauty industry. In 1908, Walker and her husband relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they opened a beauty parlor and established Lelia College to train "hair culturists". As an advocate of black women's economic independence, Walker opened training programs in the "Walker System" for her national network of licensed sales agents who earned healthy commissions (Michaels, PhD. 2015). After Walker closed the business in Denver in 1907, A'Lelia joined her in Pittsburgh. In 1910, when Walker established a new base in Indianapolis, A'Lelia ran the day-to-day operations in Pittsburgh. A'Lelia also persuaded her mother to establish an office and beauty salon in New York City's growing Harlem neighborhood in 1913; it became a center of African-American culture. In 1910, Walker relocated her businesses to Indianapolis, where she established the headquarters for the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. Walker initially purchased a house and factory at 640 North West Street. Walker later built a factory, hair salon, and beauty school to train her sales agents and added a laboratory to help with research. Walker designed a method of grooming to promote hair growth and to condition the scalp through the use of her products. ==Activism and philanthropy==

As Walker's wealth and influence increased, she became more vocal about her views. In 1912, Walker addressed an annual gathering of the National Negro Business League (NNBL) from the convention floor, where she declared: "I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there, I was promoted to the washtub. From there, I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there, I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground." Walker moved into the house in May 1918 and hosted an opening event to honor Emmett Jay Scott, at that time the Assistant Secretary for Negro Affairs of the U.S. Department of War. Profits from her business significantly impacted Walker's contributions to her political and philanthropic interests. In 1918, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) honored Walker for making the largest individual contribution to help preserve Frederick Douglass's Anacostia house. Before Walker died in 1919, Walker pledged $5,000 (the equivalent of about $88,000 in 2023) to the NAACP's anti-lynching fund. At the time, it was the largest gift from an individual that the NAACP had ever received. ==Death and legacy==

in Delta, Louisiana. In November 1917, Walker was diagnosed with nephritis (kidney inflammation). She died on May 25, 1919, from kidney failure and complications of hypertension at the age of 51. At the time of her death, Walker was considered worth between a half million and a million dollars. Walker was the wealthiest African-American woman in America. According to Walker's obituary in The New York Times, "she said herself two years ago [in 1917] that she was not yet a millionaire, but hoped to be some time, not that she wanted the money for herself, but for the good she could do with it." Her daughter, A'Lelia Walker, later became the president of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. Indianapolis's Walker Manufacturing Company headquarters building (renamed the Madame Walker Theatre Center) opened in December 1927. It included the company's offices and factory, a theater, a beauty school, a hair salon and barbershop, a restaurant, a drugstore, and a ballroom for the community. The National Register of Historic Places listed the building in 1980. A museum devoted to Walker, as well as historic radio station WERD, established itself on the site of a former Madam C. J. Walker Beauty Shoppe in Atlanta. In 2006, playwright and director Regina Taylor wrote The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, recounting the history of Walker's struggles and success. The play premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Actress L. Scott Caldwell played the role of Walker. These products replace the line that was launched on March 4, 2016, by Sundial Brands, a skincare and haircare company, in collaboration with Sephora in honor of Walker's legacy. The line "Madam C. J. Walker Beauty Culture" comprised four collections focused on using natural ingredients to care for different hair types. In September 2025, Walker was the subject of an episode of BBC Radio 4's podcast series ''History's Heroes''. TV series In 2020, actress Octavia Spencer committed to portraying Walker in a TV series based on On Her Own Ground, the biography of Walker written by Walker's great-great-granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles. The series is called Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C. J. Walker. Reviews for the series were mixed, partly because of the inaccuracies of the storyline that created more of a fictional work than an authentic biography. The portrayal of Annie Malone as Addie Monroe, another black female self-made millionaire as a villain and the daughter of Walker as a lesbian were some of the complaints by audiences. Biographer A'Lelia Bundles wrote about the behind-the-scenes experience of producing Self Made in "Netflix's Self-Made Suffers from Self-Inflicted Wounds". Documentary Walker is featured in Stanley Nelson's 1987 documentary, Two Dollars and a Dream, the first film treatment of Walker's life. As the grandson of Freeman B. Ransom, Walker's attorney and Walker Company general manager, Nelson had access to the original Walker business records and former Walker Company employees he interviewed during the 1980s. ==Tributes==

Various organizations have named scholarships and awards in Walker's honor: • The Madam C. J. Walker Business and Community Recognition Awards are sponsored by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Oakland / Bay Area chapter. An annual luncheon honors Walker and awards scholarships to outstanding women in the community. • Spirit Awards have sponsored the Madame Walker Theatre Center in Indianapolis. Established as a tribute to Walker, the annual award has honored national leaders in entrepreneurship, philanthropy, civic engagement, and the arts since 2006. Awards presented to individuals include the Madame C. J. Walker Heritage Award and Young Entrepreneur and Legacy prizes. The National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, inducted Walker in 1993. In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Madam Walker commemorative stamp as part of its Black Heritage Series. In 2022, Mattel issued a Madam C.J. Walker Barbie doll as part of their Inspiring Women doll collection. ==References==