╞Walker, Sarah Breedlove1867╨1919businesswomanBorn near Delta, Louisiana, on December 23, 1867, Sarah Breedlove was the daughter of poor farmers. She was left an orphan at six. Little is known of her early life beyond the fact that she married at fourteen in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and at twenty, then a widow, she moved to St. Louis. She worked as a washerwoman for some years and in that time began experimenting at home with various hair dressings. In 1905 she hit upon a formula for creating a smooth, shining coiffure for the ordinarily stubborn hair of African-American women, a formula combining a shampoo with a pomade preparation that she called a ╥hair grower╙ and the use of heated iron combs and vigorous brushing. She quickly achieved local success with what later became known as the ╥Walker Method╙ or ╥Walker System.╙ In 1906 she moved to Denver. There she married Charles J. Walker, and thenceforward she was known as Madame C. J. Walker. She soon gave up door-to-door selling and demonstrating to devote herself to manufacturing her products and to training a rapidly growing corps of ╥Walker Agents,╙ whom she referred to professionally as hair and beauty ╥culturists.╙ A second office was opened in Pittsburgh in 1908, and in 1910 the Pittsburgh and Denver offices were both transferred to Indianapolis. The Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company became one of that city╒s major enterprises. It employed at its peak some 3,000 persons and was by far the largest black-owned business in the nation. Walker was president and sole proprietor, and through her lectures and demonstrations before women╒s clubs, church groups, and lecture audiences, as well as through her likeness reproduced on the labels of her various cosmetic products, she became one of the best known figures in America. The legion of Walker agents spread her name and products throughout the United States and the Caribbean, and through the example of Josephine Baker the Walker System coiffure became popular in Europe as well. Madame Walker interested herself in several philanthropies; recipients of substantial gifts from her included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Tuskegee Institute, the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina, and various Indianapolis institutions. She also encouraged philanthropy and community work, along with cleanliness and other personal virtues, among her employees. In 1914 she built a sumptuous townhouse in New York City, where she became hostess to leading African-American artists and intellectuals, and in 1917 she built Villa Lewaro in Irvington, New York. She died at Villa Lewaro on May 25, 1919, leaving an estate valued at more than a million dollars. ■styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ " 5¬ 1 !I ╔ 5¬ ╩ !I < 5¬ = !I ½ !I ▐ ║ !I · 5¬ √ !I link ` HYPR ½ ║
