The First Black-American Female Entrepreneur, Madame C.J. Walker

Way before Oprah was considered the most powerful Black-American woman, there was Madame C.J. Walker, a pioneering entrepreneur who built a multimillion-dollar enterprise during early the late 1800s. During her time, she was known as a leader in the beauty industry who skillfully assembled a grassroots sales force and tapped into a new market of American consumers. She is also the first self-made female millionaire in the United States.

The daughter of freed slaves, Walker was born Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana, year 1867. Both her parents died when she was just seven years old, and seven years later she found herself married to her first husband. At that time, some people might have thought that her life would never amount to anything valuable.

With little formal education – mostly because laws of the land did not provide equal opportunities for colored people back then – Walker had to make a living out of menial jobs. But destiny had other plans for her.

Walker contracted a hair and scalp problem, which she desperately tried to cure through a self-made formula that she said, came to her through her dreams. She also started working as a sales agent for another black-owned beauty business, which ultimately encouraged her to launch a line of hair-care products.

It didn’t take long for Walker to become the founder of Madame C.J. Walker Enterprises, a company which manufactured a series of hair-care products.  Her second husband, a newspaper salesman, helped establish the company by guiding its advertising in black newspapers. Walker also sold her products door-to-door, from churches to houses all over the South.

At the turn of the century, Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower has gained a following. She started to build a beauty empire during this time by training her “hair culturists” at a college in Pittsburgh. Eventually, her empire – The Walker System – grew to employ almost 3,000 people, offering meaningful employment to thousands of Black women.

A century after her rise to success, Walker is remembered as the first female entrepreneur who overcame the odds with relentless ambition.