WALKER’S LEGACY: Is both soft and powerful!

History is nothing if not a heroic tale of missed adventures. The life of Madame CJ Walker is not just a story to remember but the genesis of a whole new universe of women women’s entry into the business. Searching her way out of poverty, in 1899, Walker, as we call her, shifted to St. Louis, Missouri, with her two-year-old daughter Lelia as a single parent. Her real name was Sarah Breedlove.

She started her journey towards the first self-made black millionaires of the 20th century with her first job as a laundress and a cook. It was rough with 1.50 dollars a day, but her notion “I had to make my living and my opportunity“ kept her going. She got up and created one while joining the A.M.E church, where she started her network with other city dwellers and got Lelia enrolled in a public school.

In 1894 her life was anything but certain. At 35, she decided to marry a second time John Davis, but he turned out to be unfaithful. Adding to her woes was a parallel agony of her scalp disorder that severely threatened hair loss. This was a widespread tension in her neighbourhood for many women who were losing hair due to the unavailability of proper bathing facilities and frequent vulnerability to pollution, bacteria, and lice. 

While she was working with the soapsuds ONE DAY, she thought, “what are you going to do when you become old, and your spine gets stiff? Who is going to hold your little girl?”.

 Her professional and personal life started taking a turn. Sarah got deeply intrigued by the dynamics of hair care. She experimented around with different mixtures of homemade remedies and market products for her scalp ailment.

Soon she came across “The Great Wonderful Hair Grower” of Malone (Annie Turnbo) in a fair of St. Louis and became a sales agent for Malone for the next year. 

 In 1906 Sarah married Charles Joseph Walker. He also helped her promote her products, after she had decided to leave her boss Malone’s shadow. She created her hair care remedy after a dream; as she mentioned in an interview, “A big Black man appeared in my dream and told me what to mix up for my hair.” Some of the cures were grown in Africa, but ”I sent for it, put it on my scalp, and my hair started growing faster”.

Her product was called “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.” She opened her factory and a beauty school in 1908. Her company trained many salespeople and beauticians known as Walker Agents to promote products, love, and cleanliness.

 Walker was not satisfied with just making money. She was looking at a bigger picture employing employment for hundreds of the women of my race – became her mission. She opened a YMCA for black people in Indianapolis.

By the time of her demise in 1919, she became the wealthiest self-made American woman. She pioneered in opening gates for future generations of Black women and women in the entire world, who have been oppressed by the clutches of tabooed fields like entrepreneurship and innovation. Her legacy continues to inspire numerous generations to be ready to work hard enough and break the barriers.