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The Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company (Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Co., The Walker Company) was a United States African American cosmetics manufacturer incorporated in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1910 by Madame C. J. Walker. In 1911 Madame C.J. Walker was listed as the sole stakeholder of the company. The Walker Company was best known for its African-American cosmetics and hair care products in the twentieth century. The Walker Company is considered the most widely known and financially successful African-American owned business of the early twentieth century. In July 1981, the Walker Company was closed.

1905-1909
Madame C.J. Walker, then Sarah McWilliams, began the idea for her company in Cherry Creek, a prosperous mining town in Denver, Colorado, in the early twentieth century. Madame claimed that the, "alkai-laden earth, whose salt content also affected agricultural output, leached nutrients from the hair." In 1905, Madame became a sales agent for Annie Malone, an African-American businesswoman, and a cook at a boarding house. Edmund L. Scholtz, a wholesale druggist in Denver, offered to analyze Malone's formulas for Madame, and suggested that she, "leave out or put in more, and make the money herself."

When Madame had saved enough money to resign from her position as cook at the boarding house, she purchased an attic which became her first laboratory, dedicated to the modification of her own haircare products based on those of Malone. Madame sold her hair preparations door-to-door throughout the compact black community in Denver under the Roberts and Pope name. The first advertisements for Madame's haircare products appeared in 1906 in The Statesman and featured a front and back image of her shoulder-length hair which boasted the growth was from only two years' treatment.

In July of 1906, Madame struck out on her own with her Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower, and detached herself from Malone's Roberts and Pope company. Madame traveled from Pueblo, Colorado to Trinidad, Colorado, to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and back to Denver where she received her daughter, Lelia. in September of 1906, Lelia took over Madame's business operations in Denver. By May of 1907, tensions between Malone and Madame came to a head, and The Statesman reported that Madame would discontinue business in Denver altogether and planned to travel throughout the southern United States and eventually to northern states. Madame and her husband, C.J. traveled throughout the southern states for eighteen months and ran a mail-order business for Madame's products.

As she gained popularity, it became clear that Madame would need a temporary headquarters for her business--Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was chosen for its convenient and accessible shipping arrangements. In the midst of Pittsburgh's 1908 economic crisis, Madame opened a hair parlor at 2518 Wylie Avenue among a number of other black businesses. Madame also began training her own sales agents who learned Madame's hair preparations. Madame placed Lelia in charge of these agents, while Madame traveled west to Ohio. At twenty-three, Lelia was sent to the Bluefield, West Virginia to survey untapped markets.

1910–1981
The Madame Walker Manufacturing company was founded in 1910 by Madame C.J. Walker in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company was created solely for an African American clientele.