Before Rihanna was making big bank with her Fenty brand, Madam C.J. Walker paved the way for Black women's economic empowerment in an era where Black women's financial standing was fragile. Walker is recognized as an entrepreneur who built an empire in the early 1900s by selling hair scalp ointments that helped Black women who had issues growing out their hair.
A Pioneer
Beyond being the inventor of the world's first hair-straightening formula and hot comb, Walker was also the first Black woman millionaire in America. She spearheaded an era of Black women becoming empowered and believing that they could aspire to wealth and economic prosperity by transforming her homemade recipes for hair and scalp care products into a business empire. Walker created a fortune for herself and helped Black women to see the value in styling their hair with versatility in mind while also building wealth. More than a century later, Walker's legacy — which stretches farther than her empire — continues to inspire a new era of Black women entrepreneurs to become self-sufficient multimillion-dollar business owners.
An Inspiration For Black Women
At the height of her entrepreneurial success, Walker employed over 3,000 African-American women to sell her products door-to-door. Most of these women were uneducated and otherwise held jobs as farm laborers and maids. She set a precedent for Black women to believe in themselves and provide for themselves and their families. The self-made millionaire also used her expansive wealth to set up scholarships for women at establishments like Tuskegee Institute. Walker also donated vast portions of her wealth to Black organizations like the Black YMCA and the NAACP. Fast-forward to today and Black women are considered the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. which one can agree that Walker's era inspired legions of Black women entrepreneurs.
Today, we can't talk about the history of the Black hair care business without mentioning Madam C.J. Walker. Her business acumen not only inspired her to create unprecedented products targeted at Black women but also her marketing genius was rooted in her vision of giving Black women the gift of pampering themselves by feeling and looking good. That vision has ultimately inspired millions of Black women to believe that they could create vast wealth for themselves despite the odds stacked against them in the face of adversity and racial strife.