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Sarah Breedlove, known as Madam C. J. Walker, was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, regarded as the first female self-made millionaire in America. She made her fortune by developing and marketing a successful line of beauty and hair products for black women under the company she founded, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. Early life Sarah Breedlove was born on December 23, 1867 in Delta, Louisiana to Owen and Minerva Breedlove who were share croppers. She was one of six children; she had a sister Louvenia and four brothers: Alexander, James, Solomon, and Owen Jr. Her parents and elder siblings were slaves on Madison Parish plantation owned by Robert W. Burney. She was the first child in her family born into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Her mother died, possibly from cholera, in 1872. Her father remarried and died shortly afterward. With both of her parents dead, Sarah was left an orphan at the age of six. While working on her hair care products in Denver, she married Charles Joseph Walker, a newspaper advertising salesman. After their marriage Charles Walker took care of advertising and promotion, while Madam C. J. Walker continued to go door to door letting everyone she could know about her products. As they became more popular, she needed more help from others, and began training agent operators. All of her agent operators had to be able to tell Sarah’s story in an accurate and intelligent manner. She began to start "Walker Clubs" that were rewarded with cash prizes if they had done the most philanthropic work. This had a huge impact on expanding her business. She also started her own mail order business to keep up with the booming business, placing her daughter A’Lelia Walker in charge of it. While her daughter Lelia ran the mail order business from Denver, Madam Walker and her husband traveled throughout the southern and eastern states. They settled in Pittsburgh in 1908 and opened Lelia College to train "hair culturists." In 1910 Walker moved to Indianapolis where she established her headquarters and built a factory, hair salon, and beauty school to train her sales agents. She later added a laboratory to help with research. which had been designed by Vertner Tandy, the first licensed black architect in New York State and a founding member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. The house cost $250,000 to build. Just before her death she pledged $5,000, which was equivalent to about $65,000 in today's dollars, to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's anti-lynching fund. Madam C. J. Walker died at Villa Lewaro on Sunday, May 25, 1919 from complications of hypertension. She was 51. In her will she directed two-thirds of future net profits of her estate to charity and bequeathing. At her death she was considered to be the wealthiest African-American woman in America. According to Walker's New York Times obituary, "she said herself two years ago that she was not yet a millionaire, but hoped to be some time." Her daughter, A'Lelia Walker, became the president of the Madam C.J Walker Manufacturing Company. References Further reading Nonfiction Biographies A'Lelia Bundles On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker Lisa Drew Books/Scribner, 2001. ISBN 0-7434-3172-3 Bundles, A'Lelia Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur Chelsea House/Facts on File, 2008. ISBN 978-1-60413-072-0 Colman, Penny Madam C.J. Walker: Building a Business Empire. The Millbrook Press, 1994. Fiction/Novels Due, Tananarive The Black Rose: The Dramatic Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's First Black Female Millionaire. Ballantine Books, 2001. ISBN 0-345-44156-7 Video links

Bibliography: Wikipedia @baygross