Madam C.J. Walker
Who is she? Madam C.J. Walker was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. Background: First black female self-made millionaire. She was born in Louisiana on December 23rd, 1867. Her parents were sharecroppers. She was the fifth child. She was born free after the emancipation proclamation. She was orphaned at 6. She married at 14 and had a child at 18. She was widowed at 20. When her child was 2, she moved to St Louis. She worked as a laundress with night school - while being a mother. She met Charles J Walker - her second husband. *Sharecropper - a tenant farmer who gives a part of each crop as rent. How she started her business? Walker experience hair loss because she worked as a laundress and was exposed to harsh lye soap, dirt and hot steam. She was not the only woman that experienced this. Families lived without indoor ...