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100 Black Americans compiled by Stan Woodard, September 2006 for the installation I see no one, no one sees me

stan@stanwoodard.com

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Madame C. J. Walker (December 23, 1867–May 25, 1919), was an African American philanthropist and tycoon. Born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana, the first member of her family born free, she was raised on farms there and in Mississippi and started out by picking cotton on a plantation. She was orphaned at age seven, married at age fourteen (to a man named Moses McWilliams), and widowed at twenty, at which point she moved toS t. Louis, joining her brothers. She worked as a laundress for as little as a dollar and a half a day, but she was able to save enough to educate her daughter. She became interested in hair tonics while trying to treat a scalp ailment that left her temporarily bald. She founded the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company to sell hair care products and cosmetics. By 1917, it was the largest business in the United States owned by an African American. The Guinness Book of Records cites Walker as the first female American self-made millionaire. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Madame_C._J._Walker