America is considered to be the “land of opportunity.” However, for the large number of African people stolen from their homes, shipped across the Atlantic, and sold into slavery, America was anything but a land of opportunity.
That’s what makes the life story of Madam C.J. Walker so incredible. The daughter of formerly enslaved sharecroppers, she was orphaned at age seven and married by fourteen. By her early 20s, Walker was a widowed single mother struggling as a laundress in St. Louis.
Yet through sheer ambition and raw ingenuity, this extraordinary woman transformed herself from a washerwoman into a beauty industry mogul. And not just any mogul, literally the first female millionaire in America. Madam C.J. Walker’s story is one of perseverance, ingenuity, and triumph. If her amazing life doesn’t make you want to get off your butt and make your dreams happen, then nothing will.
Early Life and Challenges
Madam C.J. Walker was actually born “Sarah Breedlove” on December 23, 1867, on a plantation just outside of Delta, Louisiana. She was the youngest of five children. Her four older siblings were born before the Emancipation Proclamation, so she was the first free-born person in her family.
Tragically, by the time she was seven, both of her parents passed away within a year of each other. Their cause of death was not recorded. She was sent to live with her older sister in Mississippi, where it is believed she worked picking cotton and doing housework.
Sarah’s life in Mississippi was anything but ideal. While slavery had technically been abolished, most people in the South had yet to “get the memo,” as it were. She worked the same hours she would have worked as a slave and was paid a pittance. Then, she and her family members had to pay exorbitant fees to live in the very same shack that her sister had lived in while she was a slave. Making matters worse was that her brother-in-law was physically abusive.
Eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore. At 14, she married a man named Moses McWilliams, mostly in an effort to get away from her living situation.
Sarah and Moses welcomed a baby girl named A’Lelia in 1885. Two years later, Moses passed away. Upon his death, the now-widowed single mother moved to St. Louis to be closer to her older brothers. Her brothers had found some success working as barbers.
In St. Louis, Sarah began working as a washerwoman. Her pay was only $1.50 per day. She used the majority of the money to pay for her daughter’s schooling and also took whatever classes she could herself. She subsequently met and married Charles J. Walker. Mr. Walker worked in advertising and their relationship would prove to be a fortuitous one.
A Problem Becomes An Opportunity
Due to a severe scalp condition, most likely caused by the lye-based products used to straighten her hair, in the 1880s, she began to lose her hair in bunches.
Seeking remedies, she tried a product from a black businesswoman named Annie Turnbo Malone. Ms. Malone made and marketed her own line of African-American hair care products. The two hit it off, and Annie invited Sarah to work for her as a commission-earning sales agent. So, under Ms. Malone. Over the next year, Sarah soaked up everything she could learn about sales, operating a business, and the hair care industry.
Building an Empire
In 1905, at the age of 37, Sarah, Charles, and A’Lelia relocated to Denver, Colorado, so she could launch her own hair care business. At the urging of her husband, Sarah changed her professional name to “Madam C.J. Walker.”
What started as a homegrown venture quickly blossomed into a booming enterprise. Madam C.J. Walker proved to be a marketing natural. She sold her homemade hair grower door-to-door, giving demonstrations and consultations to Black women on proper hair and scalp care. Her approach was as much about education and empowerment as it was about products.
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Walker Agents
Walker trained an army of saleswomen – called “Walker Agents” – in the “Walker System,” teaching them not only how to use and sell her hair care line but also how to carry themselves with dignity and confidence. This network of agents, dressed in smart white uniforms, fanned out across the United States and the Caribbean, building Walker’s brand and providing jobs to thousands of African-American women in the early 1900s. At a time when career opportunities for Black women were mostly limited to domestic work, these agents were earning solid incomes and gaining financial independence through Walker’s franchise.
By 1910, Madam Walker had established a new headquarters and factory in Indianapolis, a central location that enabled fast shipping of products nationwide. There, she built the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, complete with its own laboratory, training school, and salon. The business was thriving: sales of Walker’s hair grower, shampoos, and pomades were skyrocketing, and she began expanding to Central America and beyond. As her wealth grew, Walker indulged in some luxurious trappings of success – she wore stylish clothing, drove a custom Model T Ford, and eventually built herself a palatial mansion. But she never lost sight of the community that fueled her rise.
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Madam Walker’s personal drive and flair also extended to breaking barriers in business circles. A famous anecdote illustrates her boldness: in 1912, at a National Negro Business League convention led by Booker T. Washington, Walker was initially ignored by the organizer, who didn’t invite her to speak. Refusing to be sidelined, she stood up from the audience and proclaimed, “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. I was promoted from there to the washtub… and I have promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.” The crowd erupted in applause at her rousing words. Washington, taken aback by her initiative, had little choice but to acknowledge the washerwoman-turned-tycoon. This moment – effectively a self-made woman demanding her seat at the table – has gone down in history as proof of Walker’s extraordinary confidence. It not only boosted her profile as a savvy businesswoman but also cemented her status as an inspirational figure who literally spoke herself into history.
Philanthropy and Activism
Even as Madam C.J. Walker built a fortune, she always intended to use her wealth and influence to uplift others. “I am in the business world not for myself alone,” she once noted, “but to do all the good I can for the uplift of my race.”
True to her word, Walker became a notable philanthropist and social activist in her era. She made generous donations to Black churches, educational initiatives, and civil rights causes. Walker was a vocal advocate for African Americans, using her platform to speak out against lynching and racial violence. In 1917, she was part of a delegation that visited the White House to urge President Woodrow Wilson to support legislation to make lynching a federal crime. During World War I, she chaired the Circle for Negro War Relief, which aided Black soldiers and communities affected by the war.
One of Walker’s most significant contributions came in 1918 when she pledged $1,000 to the NAACP’s anti-lynching fund – equivalent to nearly $90,000 today. At the time, this was the largest gift the NAACP had ever received from an individual donor. She didn’t stop there. In her will, Madam Walker bequeathed nearly $100,000 to orphanages, schools, and other charitable institutions and directed that two-thirds of the future net profits of her company be donated to charity as well. This forward-looking arrangement meant that her estate would keep supporting the African-American community long after her death. Walker also mentored young women and men in business, and she loved to share motivational advice at her annual conventions of Walker sales agents. She urged others to follow in her footsteps, famously telling a group of fundraisers in 1913, “I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! … Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” Her life was a testament to that philosophy.
Villa Lewaro: A Monument to Black Excellence and Ambition
Villa Lewaro, Madam C.J. Walker’s grand estate in Irvington, New York, stands as a powerful symbol of Black wealth, ambition, and achievement. Commissioned by Walker in 1916 and completed in 1918, the 34-room Italianate-style mansion was designed by Vertner Tandy, the first licensed Black architect in New York. Walker chose Irvington-on-Hudson, an affluent area just north of Manhattan, for a reason—it was home to some of the country’s wealthiest families, including the Rockefellers. Her decision to build there was a bold statement: a self-made Black woman staking her claim among America’s elite.
Walker spared no expense in making Villa Lewaro a masterpiece. The home featured marble columns, intricate woodwork, lavish chandeliers, and custom furnishings. It became a hub for Black excellence, where Walker hosted prominent figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, and Mary McLeod Bethune. She saw the estate not just as a personal retreat but as a gathering place for Black leaders and a beacon of possibility for African Americans striving for success. “I want others to see what can be accomplished by Negro women of ability,” Walker declared.
Sadly, Walker enjoyed her dream home for only a short time—she passed away in 1919, just a year after its completion. Her daughter, A’Lelia Walker, inherited the estate and continued to use it as a cultural salon during the Harlem Renaissance. However, after A’Lelia’s death in 1931, the mansion’s future became uncertain. Over the next several decades, Villa Lewaro changed hands multiple times. By the 1970s, it was owned by the Companions of the Forest, a fraternal organization, and was largely off-limits to the public.
Recognizing its historical importance, Villa Lewaro was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. Yet, despite this designation, the home remained privately owned and largely inaccessible. Preservationists feared that it might fall into disrepair or be lost to redevelopment.
That changed in 2018 when Richelieu Dennis, a Black businessman and philanthropist, purchased Villa Lewaro through his New Voices Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting women of color entrepreneurs. Dennis, the founder of SheaMoisture, saw Villa Lewaro’s potential as more than just a historic home—he envisioned it as a “think tank” for Black women entrepreneurs, a space where business leaders could gather, strategize, and innovate.
The acquisition was a landmark moment. One hundred years after its completion, Villa Lewaro was once again being positioned as a center of Black excellence. Plans are underway to restore the estate and repurpose it as a hub for leadership development, ensuring that Madam Walker’s legacy continues to inspire future generations of Black businesswomen.
America’s First Female Millionaire
At the height of her success, Walker’s business was generating millions in revenue. When she died in 1919, her estate was worth $700,000 (about $14 million today), and her company was valued at over $1 million ($30 million today). Combined, she was worth around $45 million at the time of her death in 1919. These numbers made her not only the richest Black woman in America at the time but also the first woman—of any race—to build a million-dollar fortune entirely on her own.
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Legacy
Madam C.J. Walker died on May 25, 1919, at age 51, due to complications from hypertension.
She left control of her company to her daughter A’Lelia Walker, who would go on to become a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s – hosting legendary arts salons at Villa Lewaro, the grand Irvington, NY estate her mother built. Through A’Lelia’s flamboyant parties and patronage of Black artists (Langston Hughes nicknamed A’Lelia “the Joy Goddess of Harlem”), Madam Walker’s legacy continued to intersect with African-American cultural history in the decades after her death.
More than a century has passed since Madam C.J. Walker’s time, but her legacy has only grown more resonant. As an African-American woman who overcame oppressive odds to achieve financial success and then used that success to empower others, Walker stands as an icon of self-determination. She has been honored in the National Women’s Hall of Fame and has landmarks bearing her name. The Madam Walker Theatre Center in Indianapolis – a cultural hub and former headquarters of her company – remains a living monument to her impact. In 2018, the historic Walker Theatre underwent a $15 million restoration through a partnership with Indiana University, ensuring it will continue its mission of education and empowerment in the community. The very brick building where Walker’s team once manufactured products and hosted business trainings is now the Madam Walker Legacy Center, hosting arts programs and entrepreneurship initiatives that keep her spirit alive.
Madam Walker’s name and image have re-entered pop culture in recent years, sparking fresh interest and discussion about her life. In March 2020, Netflix released a limited series titled Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker. The drama, starring Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer as Walker, brought her story to a global streaming audience. Executive-produced by Spencer along with NBA superstar LeBron James, the series vividly portrays Walker’s journey, including her entrepreneurial battles, rivalries, and personal challenges, in four bingeable episodes.
Spencer’s performance earned critical praise (and an Emmy nomination), underscoring the emotional power of Walker’s story. The series did take creative liberties – for instance, it dramatized the tension between Walker and her competitor (a character inspired by Annie Malone) in a way that some historians noted was exaggerated.
Madam C.J. Walker, aka Sarah Breedlove, went from absolutely nothing to wealthier than just about everyone else around her. Along the way, she made sure to give back to the community that supported her and trained hundreds of “Walker Agents” about entrepreneurship, civic duty, and pride. She proved to an entire generation of African Americans, many of whom had grown up enslaved, that success was possible. Historically and socially, the example she set has proven far more valuable than her millions of dollars.
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Read more: How A Child of Slaves Grew Up to Become America’s First Female Millionaire
