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    Madam C. J. Walker: Building a Business Empire
    Madam C. J. Walker: Building a Business Empire
    Madam C. J. Walker: Building a Business Empire
    Ebook32 pages22 minutes

    Madam C. J. Walker: Building a Business Empire

    By Penny Colman

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    About this ebook

    Orphaned at an early age, Madam C. J. Walker, who was born Sarah Breedlove, told people, "I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it!" A washerwoman who turned herself into a powerhouse, Madam revolutionized the business of hair-care products for black women. As her business grew, she moved from Denver to Pittsburgh and then to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she established a beauty school, a laboratory, and a factory where her products were developed and made. In 1913 her daughter A'Lelia opened a beauty salon in a townhouse in Harlem, a section of New York City. Madam soon moved there because, she said, "There is so much joy living in New York." In 1918, she moved into a thirty-room mansion she had built in a town not far from New York. A year later she died at the age of fifty-one years. Her last words were, "I want to live to help my race."

    During her lifetime, Madam C. J. Walker had made lots of money; she had spent some of it on fancy cars, clothes, a gold-leaved grand piano and harp, and a mansion. But she also used her money to help make life better for other people.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenny Colman
    Release dateOct 24, 2012
    ISBN9780984960743
    Madam C. J. Walker: Building a Business Empire
    Author

    Penny Colman

    Penny Colman is the author of many nonfiction books, including Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts, Elizabeth Cady and Susan B. Anthony, and Rosie the Riveter. She lives in Englewood, New Jersey.

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      Book preview

      Madam C. J. Walker - Penny Colman

      Madam C. J. Walker: Building A Business Empire

      Penny Colman

      Copyright © 2012, 1994 by Penny Colman

      Smashwords Edition

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

      Cover image: Madam C. J. Walker Collection, Indiana Historical Society

      www.pennycolman.com

      Contents

      Important Dates

      Additional Resources

      Places to Visit

      Namesakes

      About the Author

      Special thanks to Wilma L. Gibbs and Susan Sutton, staff members at the Indiana Historical Society. Also thank you to the staff at the Madame Walker Urban Life Center, including Josephine Weathers-Rogers, Cheryl Coleman and Serena Hopkinson.

      Madam C. J. Walker: Building A Business Empire

      Madam C. J. Walker made lots of money. More money than probably any women--black or white--had ever made before in America. And Madam Walker made the money herself. She started her own business and built a factory.

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