Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. Entrepreneurs like Kim
Speaker 1: Kardashian and Rihanna, whose beauty brands have made hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars, are following a trail blazed by one
Speaker 1: Madam C. J. Walker a century ago. Some reports claim
Speaker 1: Walker was the first black woman to build a million
Speaker 1: dollar fortune, but Guinness World Records lists Walker as the
Speaker 1: first self made woman millionaire period. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with a
Speaker 1: Lelia Bundle's, Walker's great great granddaughter and biographer. She said,
Speaker 1: for a woman in business and who launched her product
Speaker 1: before women had the right to vote, is pretty extraordinary.
Speaker 1: Walker was the daughter of sharecroppers, yet still built a
Speaker 1: national brand, empowered hundreds of women, and became a philanthropist
Speaker 1: and civil rights activist. The Netflix mini series Self Made,
Speaker 1: starring Octavia Spen Sir, is loosely based on her life story.
Speaker 1: So who was she? The woman we know as Madam C. J.
Speaker 1: Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on a Louisiana cotton plantation
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty seven, the fifth child of Owen and
Speaker 1: Minerva Breedlove, who once had been enslaved. Sarah was the
Speaker 1: first of her siblings to be born free. Her early
Speaker 1: years in Louisiana were full of struggle, and Sarah was
Speaker 1: an orphan by the age of seven, so she went
Speaker 1: to live with her older sister and her husband. In
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven, the family moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where
Speaker 1: young Sarah picked cotton and did domestic work. At age fourteen,
Speaker 1: she married Moses McWilliams to escape the hard labor and
Speaker 1: her brother in law, who mistreated her. Her only child, Lelia,
Speaker 1: who later changed her name to Leliah Walker, was born
Speaker 1: in June of eighty five. When her husband died in
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven, she moved to St. Louis, where her
Speaker 1: brothers were working as barber's. She started doing audrey, earning
Speaker 1: a dollar fifty a day, which allowed Walker and her
Speaker 1: daughter to attend school. By the eighteen nineties, her hair
Speaker 1: started falling out due to a scalp condition. There were
Speaker 1: very few hair care products designed for women of African
Speaker 1: descent at the time, and hair loss was a big problem,
Speaker 1: Bundle says, so Walker searched for a way to cure
Speaker 1: her hair loss. She tried the Pearo hair caroline, made
Speaker 1: by another black woman entrepreneur, and it helped. She sold
Speaker 1: Pearo for eighteen months while experimenting with her own hair
Speaker 1: growing formula. In nineteen o six, she went Charles Joseph C. J.
Speaker 1: Walker as sales and advertising man in Denver. He helped
Speaker 1: her with marketing strategies and business ideas, and both these
Speaker 1: and his name were useful. That same year, she changed
Speaker 1: her name from Sarah Breedlove to Madam C. J. Walker
Speaker 1: and launched Madam C. J. Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower. Bundle
Speaker 1: said she was one of the women who was a
Speaker 1: pioneer and a multimillion dollar cosmetic and hair care industry.
Speaker 1: In nineteen o six, when she founded her company, there
Speaker 1: was no national distribution for hair care and cosmetics like
Speaker 1: when women like Elizabeth Arden created her brand. To promote
Speaker 1: their products, she and c. J. Traveled the South for
Speaker 1: eighteen months, selling door to door and doing demonstrations, mostly
Speaker 1: in churches. Convinced by Walkers before and after photos, women
Speaker 1: snapped up tins of her hair grower for fifty cents apiece.
Speaker 1: By nineteen o eight, Walker was earning the equivalent of
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in today's money,
Speaker 1: and she likes to say there would be no hair
Speaker 1: growing industry if I hadn't invented it. The exact recipe
Speaker 1: is lost to time, but the original formula included coconut oil, beeswax, petrolatum,
Speaker 1: which is similar to petroleum, jelly, copper sulfate, precipitated sulfur,
Speaker 1: and a violet scent. A coconut oil is a favorite
Speaker 1: in hair care today, but the key ingredient was likely sulfur,
Speaker 1: which had been used in scalp and hair preparations for years.
Speaker 1: A twenty nineteen study found that an oral form of
Speaker 1: sulfur known as ms M supported the growth of healthy
Speaker 1: hair and fingernails, likely because it boosts the development of
Speaker 1: keratin protein necessary for growing hair, skin, and nails. But
Speaker 1: back to Madam Walker. Her Walker system included a vegetable
Speaker 1: based shampoo and glossing, which helped smooth hair pressed with
Speaker 1: her newly designed hot comb. By nineteen eleven, Walker Incorporated
Speaker 1: then recruited and trained black women agents, who she called
Speaker 1: beauty culturists in major cities. However, as Walker's success grew
Speaker 1: her marriage deteriorated after she caught c J in an affair.
Speaker 1: She divorced him in nineteen twelve. By this time, she
Speaker 1: lived in Indianapolis, a Midwestern hub of transit and Black
Speaker 1: American life. She hobnobbed with newspaper publishers and eventually became
Speaker 1: allied with influential politicians and activists, including Ida B. Wells,
Speaker 1: w E. B. DWO Boys, Maria McLoud, Bethoon, and Booker T. Washington,
Speaker 1: who was one of the most fluential black men in
Speaker 1: the country at that time. In nineteen sixteen, she settled
Speaker 1: in New York's Harlem, then the epicenter of Black American culture.
Speaker 1: She and her daughter, then Aaliya Walker Robinson, opened a
Speaker 1: posh salon featuring sweeping columns, velvet seating, parquet floors, and
Speaker 1: a grand piano in the lobby. In nineteen seventeen, Walker
Speaker 1: hosted her first national convention for beauty culturists in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: Besides inspiring her agents to sell more, she encouraged them
Speaker 1: to support charitable causes. Through the Madam C. J. Walker
Speaker 1: Benevolent Association. Walker donated money to black colleges and gave
Speaker 1: to the n double A CPS anti lynching fund. Bundle
Speaker 1: said she visited the White House in nineteen seventeen with
Speaker 1: a group to try to persuade President Woodrow Wilson to
Speaker 1: support legislation to make lynching a federal crime. In the
Speaker 1: early twentieth century, there were hundreds and hundreds of lynchings,
Speaker 1: and African American men were targeted. In nineteen eighteen, Walker
Speaker 1: moved into the Villa La Warro, a mansion she had
Speaker 1: built in Irvington on Hudson, about forty five minutes north
Speaker 1: of Manhattan, with some twenty thousand square feet that's about
Speaker 1: nineteen hundred square meters spread over thirty four rooms, and
Speaker 1: expansive views of the Hudson River. The home, designed by
Speaker 1: African American architect Wurtner Woodson Tandy, Sr. Was a marvel.
Speaker 1: Sadly she didn't get to enjoy it for long. Walker
Speaker 1: died in nineteen nineteen at just fifty two years old.
Speaker 1: In her obituary, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote, it
Speaker 1: is given to few persons to transform a people in
Speaker 1: a generation, Yet this was done by the late Madam C. J. Walker.
Speaker 1: Her daughter Alila went on to be the most prominent
Speaker 1: socialite in the Harlem Renaissance, facilitating art and culture in
Speaker 1: her Villa Lawiro and beyond. Though the mansion fell out
Speaker 1: of the family after Alila's death, he was designated a
Speaker 1: National Historic Landmark in nineteen seventy six and has largely
Speaker 1: been restored by Ambassador Harold E. Dooley Jr. And his wife,
Speaker 1: who lived there from Dolly, retired investment banker and the
Speaker 1: first African American to own his own seat in the
Speaker 1: New York Stock Exchange, had a toy model of Villa
Speaker 1: Lawarro as a boy. In lateen Rich Dennis, the Sundial
Speaker 1: Brands haircare magnate who invented the Shame moisture line, acquired
Speaker 1: the home. Dennis worked with Sephora to launch a Walker
Speaker 1: Beauty Culture hair care line in and he planned to
Speaker 1: use Villa Lawiro as a think tank and bass for
Speaker 1: his New Voices Foundation to support women of color entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: More than a dozen books and movies have featured Walker
Speaker 1: and her rise to riches and fame. Bundles wrote her
Speaker 1: Columbia University master's thesis on her great great grandmother and
Speaker 1: has authored four books on her life based on her
Speaker 1: research and family archives, including fifty thou documents and photographs.
Speaker 1: In two thousand one, she published her biography on her
Speaker 1: own ground, The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker.
Speaker 1: During her time as an entrepreneur, Walker employed forty thousand
Speaker 1: black men and women in the United States, Central America,
Speaker 1: and the Caribbean, and she founded a national Association for
Speaker 1: Black cosmetics and manufacturers. In nineteen seventeen. Before her death,
Speaker 1: she updated her will, leaving two thirds of future net
Speaker 1: profits to charity, as well as thousands to several individuals
Speaker 1: and schools. After her death, her daughter worked to complete
Speaker 1: a bustling center for the black community that she had
Speaker 1: started in Indianapolis, where Madam Walker's business was still headquartered.
Speaker 1: Opened in ninety seven, during a time when Black Americans
Speaker 1: were often turned away or charged extra or relegated to
Speaker 1: second tier service at many businesses, the Walker Building featured
Speaker 1: professional offices, a drug store, a restaurant and coffee shop,
Speaker 1: a theater, a ballroom, and of course, a salon and
Speaker 1: beauty school. Now a National Historic Landmark, it stands today
Speaker 1: as an educational and cultural center and, to quote the
Speaker 1: Madam Walker Legacy Center website, a beacon of pride, hope,
Speaker 1: end the beauty that lies in diversity. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article Black Hair Care Made Madam C. J.
Speaker 1: Walker America's first self made female millionaire on how Stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com, written by Mariae C. Hunt. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: producted by Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsey Young.
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