African American Women - Biography, Labor & Business Figures - Biography, Health & Beauty Industries, Business, African American - Biography - General, Women - Biography, African American General Biography
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Overview
Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 in Delta, Louisiana, Walker was the daughter of former slaves. Orphaned at the age of seven, married at fourteen and widowed at twenty, Madam C.J. Walker dreamed of a better life. In 1905, she invented a new hair-care preparation for black women and began selling it door-to-door. Her product was an instant success, and she soon opened her own cosmetics company, adding hundreds of black women as employees as the company grew. As her wealth increased, she made substantial contributions to causes: black schools, orphanages and civil rights organizations. After becoming the first self-made black female millionaire in America, she used her wealth and position to campaign for the rights of black war veterans and for federal antilynching legislation. Rising quite literally from rags to riches, she gave black women an unparalleled example of pride and self-determination.A biography of the Afro-American businesswoman whose invention of facial creams and other cosmetics led to great financial success and who, throughout her life, devoted herself to many social and political causes.
Book Details
Published
April 21, 1994
Publisher
Melrose Publishing Company
Pages
192
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780870675973