Madame C.J. Walker Collage/Script

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Madame Walker Script

Sarah Breedlove  was born on Dec. 23rd 1867 in poverty-stricken rural Louisiana. The daughter of former slaves, she was orphaned at the age of seven. Sarah  and her older sister survived by working in the cotton fields of Delta and Vicksburg, Mississippi. She married at age fourteen and her only daughter A'Lelia was born in 1885. After her husband's death two years later, she traveled to St. Louis to join her four brothers who had made it as barbers. Working as a laundrywoman, she managed to save enough money to educate her daughter, and became involved in activities with the National Association of Colored Women.

During the 1890s, Sarah began to suffer from a scalp ailment that caused her to lose some of her hair. Embarrassed by her appearance, she experimented with a variety of home-made remedies and products made by another black woman entrepreneur, Annie Malone. In 1905, Sarah became a sales agent for Malone and moved to Denver, where she married Charles Joseph Walker.

When she changed her name to Madame C.J. Walker she started to sell her hair products on her own. To promote her products she went from South to the Southwest, going door to door giving demonstrations.

Eventually she formed a basis for a thriving national business, gaining over 3,000 employees. Her Walker System, which included a broad offering of cosmetics, licensed Walker Agents, and Walker Schools offered meaningful employment and personal growth to thousands of Black women.
Madame C.J. Walker passed away on May 25th 1919. 

"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground" - Madame Walker