{"id":113,"date":"2020-02-28T19:54:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T19:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-introtocollegereadingandwriting\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=113"},"modified":"2020-08-05T18:03:15","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:03:15","slug":"113","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-introtocollegereadingandwriting\/chapter\/113\/","title":{"raw":"World-Changing Women: Madam CJ Walker","rendered":"World-Changing Women: Madam CJ Walker"},"content":{"raw":"<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1888 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4969\/2020\/02\/12200433\/18-207x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"300\" \/>\r\n\r\n<span class=\"injected inline-image-right\"><span class=\"ou-inline-caption-wrap\"><span class=\"inline-image-caption\">Madam C.J. Walker, the first self-made female millionaire in the USA. <\/span><\/span><\/span>In early twentieth-century USA it was not easy for a single woman to support herself and her child. Yet the widowed mother of one who moved to Denver in 1905 at the age of thirty-eight with savings of just $1.50 died fourteen years later one of the twentieth century\u2019s most successful, self-made women entrepreneurs.\r\n\r\nSarah Breedlove was born in 1867 in Louisiana, to former slaves. Orphaned at the age of seven, she worked as a maid from the age of ten. By her fourteenth birthday, Sarah had married and three years later gave birth to her only daughter. In 1887, having been widowed, she moved with her daughter to St. Louis where her brothers lived.\u00a0 She earned $1.50 a day as a laundress and cook, struggling to send her daughter to school.\r\n\r\nBy the age of thirty-five life did not look promising. However, things began to improve when she took employment as local agent for a hair-restoring product. At around the same time she met Charles Joseph (C.J.) Walker, a salesman whom she married and whose name she took. At around this time she was inspired by a dream to mix her own hair-restoring recipe, using products from Africa. This was so successful that she branched out on her own, with \u2018Madam Walker\u2019s Wonderful Hair Grower\u2019. Her initial investment was $1.25.\u00a0 She went on to make a fortune out of the shampoos and ointments developed for black hair.\r\n\r\nBy 1915 Madam C. J. Walker was by far the wealthiest African American woman in the country. She was invited to meetings of black leaders and was to lecture on business and politics. She spoke out on the social conditions endured by African Americans and devoted particular attention and money to the campaign to make lynching a federal crime.\r\n<div>She died in 1919, at the age of fifty one.<\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div><\/div>\r\n<h2>Also read:<\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Madam C. J. Walker\u2019s Legacy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/nbcblk\/madam-c-j-walker-s-legacy-empowering-black-women-lives-n988451\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/nbcblk\/madam-c-j-walker-s-legacy-empowering-black-women-lives-n988451<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li>Madam C. J. Walker ... pioneered global black activism <a href=\"https:\/\/timeline.com\/madame-cj-walker-history-50d6d7090076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/timeline.com\/madame-cj-walker-history-50d6d7090076<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1893 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4969\/2020\/02\/12201633\/19-300x293.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"293\" \/>\r\n<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-1894 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4969\/2020\/02\/12201750\/17-300x37.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"519\" height=\"64\" \/>","rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1888 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4969\/2020\/02\/12200433\/18-207x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injected inline-image-right\"><span class=\"ou-inline-caption-wrap\"><span class=\"inline-image-caption\">Madam C.J. Walker, the first self-made female millionaire in the USA. <\/span><\/span><\/span>In early twentieth-century USA it was not easy for a single woman to support herself and her child. Yet the widowed mother of one who moved to Denver in 1905 at the age of thirty-eight with savings of just $1.50 died fourteen years later one of the twentieth century\u2019s most successful, self-made women entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah Breedlove was born in 1867 in Louisiana, to former slaves. Orphaned at the age of seven, she worked as a maid from the age of ten. By her fourteenth birthday, Sarah had married and three years later gave birth to her only daughter. In 1887, having been widowed, she moved with her daughter to St. Louis where her brothers lived.\u00a0 She earned $1.50 a day as a laundress and cook, struggling to send her daughter to school.<\/p>\n<p>By the age of thirty-five life did not look promising. However, things began to improve when she took employment as local agent for a hair-restoring product. At around the same time she met Charles Joseph (C.J.) Walker, a salesman whom she married and whose name she took. At around this time she was inspired by a dream to mix her own hair-restoring recipe, using products from Africa. This was so successful that she branched out on her own, with \u2018Madam Walker\u2019s Wonderful Hair Grower\u2019. Her initial investment was $1.25.\u00a0 She went on to make a fortune out of the shampoos and ointments developed for black hair.<\/p>\n<p>By 1915 Madam C. J. Walker was by far the wealthiest African American woman in the country. She was invited to meetings of black leaders and was to lecture on business and politics. She spoke out on the social conditions endured by African Americans and devoted particular attention and money to the campaign to make lynching a federal crime.<\/p>\n<div>She died in 1919, at the age of fifty one.<\/div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h2>Also read:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Madam C. J. Walker\u2019s Legacy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/nbcblk\/madam-c-j-walker-s-legacy-empowering-black-women-lives-n988451\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/nbcblk\/madam-c-j-walker-s-legacy-empowering-black-women-lives-n988451<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Madam C. J. Walker &#8230; pioneered global black activism <a href=\"https:\/\/timeline.com\/madame-cj-walker-history-50d6d7090076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/timeline.com\/madame-cj-walker-history-50d6d7090076<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1893 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4969\/2020\/02\/12201633\/19-300x293.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"293\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1894 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4969\/2020\/02\/12201750\/17-300x37.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"519\" height=\"64\" \/><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-113\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>World-Changing Women: Madam CJ Walker. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Dr. Catherine Lee. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The Open University. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.open.edu\/openlearn\/history-the-arts\/world-changing-women-madam-cj-walker\">https:\/\/www.open.edu\/openlearn\/history-the-arts\/world-changing-women-madam-cj-walker<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>image of Madam CJ Walker. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>image of Madam CJ Walker&#039;s Wonderful Hair Grower container. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Photo from the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, housed in OpenStax text on Entrepreneurship, Chapter 2.2 The Process of Becoming an Entrepreneur. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/entrepreneurship\/pages\/2-2-the-process-of-becoming-an-entrepreneur#footnote-ref3\">https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/entrepreneurship\/pages\/2-2-the-process-of-becoming-an-entrepreneur#footnote-ref3<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":81366,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"World-Changing Women: Madam CJ Walker\",\"author\":\"Dr. Catherine Lee\",\"organization\":\"The Open 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