Gift from Dawn Simon Spears and Alvin Spears, Sr.
National Museum of African American History and Culture
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Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 on a plantation in Louisiana. As an adult, she worked as a laundress, cook, and a sales agent for Annie Turnbo Malone selling hair care products to Black women. When Sarah met her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, she rebranded herself as Madam C.J. Walker and began selling her own formula of hair care products for Black women under her new name. Her products sold very well, and Madam Walker is considered by some to be the first self-made female millionaire in US History, although this claim cannot be fully proven. With her business success and fortune, she supported many different civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP, the National Negro Business League, and the National Organization of Colored Women’s Clubs.
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