Sarah Breedlove Walker was born Dec. 23, 1867, in Delta, La. She was orphaned at age 6 and widowed at age 20. Then she moved with her daughter to St. Louis and began working as a hotel washerwoman. In 1904, she started making hair remedies to relieve her alopecia.
Walker soon began selling her hair products and developed the “Walker Method” of hair care. In 1905, she moved to Denver and in 1906, she married newspaperman Charles Joseph Walker. She then founded the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co. and expanded her products to include hair straighteners and strengtheners, scalp treatments, toiletries, fragrances and facial treatments.
Walker developed new marketing techniques, trained “Walker agents” to sell her products door-to-door and added a huge mail order department. In 1910, she opened her first factory; by 1914, the company had sales in excess of $1 million per year; and by 1917, it was the largest black-owned business in America. Walker was the first black woman millionaire.
She was also a social leader among the black middle class, leading the way in charity and educational work. She established scholarships for women at a number of colleges and supported black chapters of the YWCA. Walker died on May 25, 1919.

— Michael J. Kleckner