Celebrating Women’s History: Remembering Madam CJ Walker 100 years after her death
I have mixed feelings when it comes to celebratory months. I think it is important to honor women, the earth, Black History, etc. However limiting the contributions to these important groups to just 30 day or for Black History Month 28 days doesn’t sit well with me. We should be looking to honor people all the time and not just one month.
March is recognized as Women’s History Month. Publications highlight women and Google has a doodle to commemorate this fact. One of my favorite women from history is Madam CJ Walker. Madam Walker is arguably the first female self-made millionaire in the United States. She built her empire on hair care.
Hair care is one of my true loves. I have numerous hair products on my shelves and I am always on Youtube looking at hair videos. When I post hair pictures on Instagram I always get a lot of comments and likes. In part, I have thank the Madam. She brought hair care for African descendant women to the forefront.
Who was Madam CJ Walker?
Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 in Delta Louisiana just a few years after slavery, on a plantation her parents worked on, Madam had a very hard early life. Tragedy struck her young and she became an orphan at age 7. So in additional to blatant and severe racism that limited the opportunities for Black people she was also without the love of her parents.
She didn’t have access to many of the tools that I have today such as schooling, grants, the Internet and mentors. She married young and divorced young. As a single parent, things became harder but Madam Walker always had a fighting spirit and a strong belief in herself.
Overcoming Obstacles: Highlights from the Madam CJ Walker Official site
A hair illness became the starting point for her dream to become a business owner. She experimented with different hair products and tonics to fix her own problem and Madam Walkers Hair Strengthening Tonic was born. And in a precursor to Youtube she did live demos of her products over all the country for a year. Madam Walker was relentless. Her hard work paid off and she had thousands of workers many of them women selling her products.
This poor black woman became a successful business woman. Her mansion in New York, Villa Lawaro, was a show piece where she entertained the top black entertainers of the time. She never forgot her roots however and gave money to many charities and supported the NAACP (National Advancement of Colored People) anti-lynching campaign.
Whenever I get down on my dreams I think of Madam Walker and what she had to endure to realize her dreams. Thank you Madam Walker for people a role model for me and women everywhere.