An American Pioneer is Rediscovered

Madam C.J. Walker is the answer to a lot of trivia questions: Who was the first self-made woman millionaire? Who was one of the first to form a network of cosmetics saleswomen?

In this 80th anniversary year of her death, Walker is still making news. Last year, the cosmetics giant’s portrait appeared on a commemorative stamp. This month, Home and Garden TV will feature her mansion. And next year, Scribner will publish a biography of Walker and her illustrious daughter, A’Lelia Walker Robinson.

All for good reason. Walker’s story is larger than life. Born in 1867 to ex-slaves in Louisiana, Walker best summed up her life in a speech to a black business convention in 1912: “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.”

To say the least.

At 37, Walker’s hair was falling out. According to her great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles, Walker’s condition was very common in those days. Portraits showed that many individuals wore wigs. According to Bundles, “a lot of people had severe scalp disease.”

Walker, widowed with a young daughter, searched for a remedy. She claimed to be given the formula in her sleep, recounting later to a reporter, “I had a dream, and in that dream a big, black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair.”

One year later, in 1905, she married black newspaperman Charles J. Walker, and took on the name Madam C.J. Walker. The couple launched a company, working together even after their divorce.

“She created an enormous sales force that is sort of analogous to the Avon people. . . . Avon was doing it at the same time,” said Fath Davis Ruffins, historian at the National Museum of American History. But before the 1950s, Avon didn’t accept African American salespeople.

“She was extraordinarily energetic. She did a lot of door-to-door selling,” Ruffins said.

Walker was also the first to realize the potential of advertising in a black market, said Ruffins, who is writing a book on ethnic imagery in advertising. Since there were few mass media at the time, “many people didn’t think that advertising worked,” she said.

With her money, Walker became a philanthropist, donating to black orphanages, YMCAs and other causes.

“She [was] an innovator--kind of [a] classic entrepreneur,” the Smithsonian historian said.

In 1918, Walker built a mansion along the Hudson River in New York, but she was never able to enjoy it. She died in 1919 of a heart attack at age 52.

Daughter A’Lelia became a patron of the arts and a very important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. The family maintained the beauty company for many years, selling out in 1985. The company building is now an arts theater in Indianapolis.

Bundles said she was first interested in A’Lelia but eventually became so intrigued by Walker that she wrote a biography, “Madame C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur” (Chelsea House, 1991). She also led the campaign to honor Walker in a commemorative stamp.

Ruffins said there is also a renewed interest among historians in “understanding American culture through both beauty products [and] the business of beauty products.”