Madame Walker: Biography

Born as Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, Madame C. J. Walker started her descent through life. She was born to Owen and Minerva Breedlove. Her family lived and worked on a cotton plantation in Delta, Louisianna. Sarah had one older sister, Louvenia, and one older brother, Alex. She was the first person in her family to be born free. The Breedloves worked incredibly hard and could not afford to miss even one day of work. As soon as Sarah was old enough, she too started to work.

When Owen and Minerva died in a yellow fever epidemic, the three Breedlove children tried to work the family's land on their own, but without the aid of two adults it was virtually impossible. Alex took it upon himself in these hard times to move to Vicksburg and seek out some work. Leaving Sarah and Louvenia alone on the farm. Just to make enough money to stay alive, Sarah and Louvenia worked from dawn until dusk everyday at their washtubs. The only few moments of Sarah's day that were for her was spent sitting on the riverbank near her cabin.

In 1878, another yellow fever epidemic reared it's ugly head and more than 3,000 people in the vicinity of Vicksburg died. In addition, the cotton crop failed that year. Hence making many, including Sarah and Louvenia, homeless. The girls moved across the river hoping to find work, as did others.

The white population in Vicksburg was none too pleased with the sudden burst of African Americans in their town. As a result, the Breedlove girls were in constant fear of racist groups such as the Klu Klux Klan and other cliques of the same nature and goal. Eleven-year-old Sarah long to get away from the town and start a new life for herself. She was also fed up with her brother-in-law, Willie Powell, because he was "Cruel and comtemptuous."

When Sarah was fourteen, she fled from Vicksburg to "get a life of her own." She then married a Vicksburg laboror named Moses McWilliams. She had a feeling that his name might be a nice sign and had a nice ring to it. Sarah and Moses did what they could to earn a decent living. During their marrige, Moses worked doing anything he could, and Sarah was a washerwoman once again.

When June 6, 1885 rolled around, Sarah had a little baby girl. She and Moses named their bundle of joy Lelia. After Lelia was born, Sarah's workload was almost doubled. Not only because she had to work AND look after a baby, but also because she wanted to make enough money so Lelia would have an easier childhood than her own.

Moses died in 1887 leaving Sarah with the responsibility of raising a child alone. She was twenty and she had no intention of going back to her sister's home, but she did not know what to do on her own. She then learned, after asking the neighbors, that there was a lot of job opportunities in St. Louis as a laundress, and that the wages were better. So she moved to St. Louis.

It was then that Sarah sent her daughter to school. As the years passed, Sarah saved as much as she could so that when Lelia graduated from high school her proud mother would have enough money to send her to Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee. About that time, Sarah remarried. Her second husband was John Davis. He was a heavy drinker and so Sarah divorced him before Lelia actually went to college.

When Sarah went to the festivities where delegates of the National Association of Colored Women, she saw the incredably well groomed Margret Washington. This got her thinking about her own apperance, and she thought that if she looked like that she would be more self-confident. Sarah had nice clothes and a good completion, but she was self-conscious about her hair. It was patchy and broken and revealed her scalp in several places. Since many women shared Sarah's hair problem, she decided to try some different hair products, but didn't have much success. Then she thought that maybe if she thought up her own hair formula, one that actually worked, she could make a quaint little business for herself.

Sarah left St. Louis because in St. Louis she would be in competition with the Poro company. She moved to Denver, Colorado on July 21, 1905. There she experimented a little more to perfect her product. She came up with three final formulas. They were called the Wonderful Hair Grower, Vegetable Shampoo, and Glossince. She sold them door to door.

Her advertisements had a picture of her before and a picture of her after. She stated that her well groomed and long hair was like that because of her hair products.

Sarah kept in touch with her friend, Charles Joseph Walker of St Louis. One day he showed up in person in Denver. On January 4, 1906, Sarah McWilliams became Madame C. J. Walker.

Madame Walker's hair products were soon making $10 a week, which was quite an up from just $1. She also went on many sales trips to sell her wonderful hair products.

In 1908, Madame Walker and her daughter moved to Pittsburgh and opened up the Lelia College. It was a college that was actually a beauty parlor and a training school. When you graduate from this college you became a "hair culturist".

Madame Walker's business spread like wildfire in Pittsburgh in the two years she was there. Even though Pittsburgh was a fine city for her business, Walker wanted to find a city that could house her national headquarters. She decided, in 1910, that Indianapolis, Indiana was the spot for her. That is where you can find the Walker Theatre.