Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and business woman. She was the first African American to launch a successful beauty and hair care line strictly for African Americans. Madam C.J. Walker was also activily involved in the NAACP. Read more about her life below.
Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove, on December 23, 1867 in Delta, Louisiana to Owen and Minerva Breedlove. She was one of six children; she had a sister Louvenia and four brothers: Alexander, James, Solomon, and Owen, Jr. Her parents and elder siblings were slaves on Madison Parish plantation owned by Robert W. Burney .[1] She was the first child in her family born into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Her mother died, possibly from cholera, in 1872. Her father remarried and died shortly afterward.[2]
Madam C. J. Walker moved in with her older sister, and brother-in-law, Willie Powell. At the age of 14, she married Moses McWilliams to escape Powell’s abuse. Three years later her daughter, Lelia McWilliams (A’Lelia Walker) was born. When Sarah was 20, her husband died. Lelia was just 2 years old. Shortly afterward she moved to St. Louis where three of her brothers, who were barbers, lived. She also joined St. Paul AME Church. Her second marriage to John Davis ended in 1903, married a third time in 1906 to newspaper advertising salesman, Charles Joseph Walker.
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