Madam C.J. Walker was born on
December 23, 1867. As a child she worked the cotton fields from morning ‘til
night. She didn’t learn to read and write until she was a grown up. Then she
even made her own business manufacturing hair goods and other preparations for
African American women. She was the first African American to make $1,000,000.
She was an amazing woman. She even had a book written about her. She was married
when she was 14. Her daughter A’Lelia Walker was born in 1885. When her
husband died she moved to St. Louis. She worked hard for as little as $1.50 a
day. She began experimenting with hair products when her hair started to fall
out. She eventually changed her name to Madame Walker and founded her own
company and started selling products to other African American women. By early
1910 she had enough money to buy a factory in Indianapolis. In 1916 she moved to
Harlem and got interested in the NAACP and donated 5,000 dollars to it. Madame
C.J. Walker died at her home Villa Lewaro in Irvington-on-Hudson, New
York on May 25, 1919.
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