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VOICE ONE:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program,People in America. Every week, we tell the story of someoneimportant in the history of the United States. Today we tell aboutMadam C. J.Walker. She was a businesswoman, the first female AfricanAmerican to become very rich.
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VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen-hundreds, life for mostAfrican-Americans was very difficult. Mobs of white people attackedand killed black people. It was legal to separate groups of peopleby race. Women, both black and white, did not have the same rightsas men. Black women worked very long hours for little wages. Theyworked mostly as servants or farm workers. Or they washed clothes.Madam C. J. Walker worked as a washerwoman for twenty years. Shethen started her own business of developing and selling hair-careproducts for black women. Madam Walker, however, did more than builda successful business. Her products helped women have a better senseof their own beauty. Her business also gave work to many blackwomen. And, she helped other people, especially black artists andcivil rights supporters. She said, “My object in life is not simplyto make money for myself or to spend it on myself. I love to use apart of what I make in trying to help others. “
VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walker wasvery poor for most of her life. She was born Sarah Breedlove in thesouthern state of Louisiana in eighteen-sixty-seven. Her parentswere former slaves. The family lived and worked on a cotton farmalong the Mississippi River. Cotton was a crop that grew well in therich, dark soil near the river. Most children of slaves did not goto school. They had to work. By the time Sarah was five years old,she was picking cotton in the fields with her family. She alsohelped her mother and sister earn money by washing clothes for whitepeople. There was no water or machine to wash clothes in their home.The water from the Mississippi River was too dirty. So, they usedrainwater. Sarah helped her mother and sister carry water to fillbig wooden containers. They heated the water over the fire. Thenthey rubbed the clothes on flat pieces of wood, squeezed out thewater and hung each piece to dry. It was hard work. The wet clotheswere heavy, and the soap had lye in it. Lye is a strong substancethat cleaned the clothes well. But it hurt people’s skin.
VOICE ONE: When Sarah was seven years old, her parents died ofthe disease yellow fever. She and her sister moved to Vicksburg,Mississippi. At the age of fourteen, Sarah married Moses McWilliams.They had a daughter after they were married for three years. Theynamed their daughter Lelia. Two years later, Moses McWilliams diedin an accident. Sarah was alone with her baby. She decided to moveto Saint Louis, Missouri. She had heard that washerwomen earned moremoney there. Sarah washed clothes all day. At night, she went toschool to get the education she had missed as a child. She also madesure that her daughter Lelia went to school. Sarah saved enoughmoney to send Lelia to college. Sarah began to think about how shewas going to continue to earn money in the future. What was shegoing to do when she grew old and her back grew weak? She alsoworried about her hair. It was dry and broken. Her hair was fallingout in some places on her head. Sarah tried different products toimprove her hair but nothing worked. Then she got an idea. If shecould create a hair product that worked for her, she could start herown business.
VOICE TWO: At the age ofthirty-seven, Sarah invented a mixture that helped her hair and madecurly hair straight. Some people believe that Sarah studied the hairproduct she used and added her own “secret” substance. But Sarahsaid she invented the mixture with God’s help. By solving her hairproblem, she had found a way to improve her life. Sarah decided tomove west to Denver, Colorado. She did not want to compete withcompanies in Saint Louis that made hair-care products. For the firsttime in her life, Sarah left the area along the Mississippi Riverwhere she was born. Sarah found a job in Denver as a cook. Shecooked and washed clothes during the day. At night she worked on herhair products. She tested them on herself and on her friends. Theproducts helped their hair. Sarah began selling her products fromhouse to house.
VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-six, she married Charles Joseph Walker.He was a newspaperman who had become her friend and adviser. Fromthen on, Sarah used the name madam C. J. Walker. Madam Walkerorganized women to sell her hair treatment. She established Walkerschools of beauty culture throughout the country to train thesaleswomen. The saleswomen became known as “Walker Agents. ” Theybecame popular in black communities throughout the United States.Madam Walker worked hard at her business. She traveled to manyAmerican cities to help sell her products. She also traveled to theCaribbean countries of Jamaica, Panama, and Cuba. Her products hadbecome popular there too.
VOICE TWO: Madam Walker’s businessgrew quickly. It soon was employing three-thousand people. Blackwomen who could not attend her schools could learn the Walker haircare method through a course by mail. Hundreds, and later thousands,of black women learned her hair-care methods. Madam Walker’sproducts helped these women earn money to educate their children,build homes and start businesses. Madam Walker was very proud ofwhat she had done. She said that she had made it possible “for manycolored women to abandon the washtub for more pleasant andprofitable occupations. “
VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-eight, Madam Walker moved her businesseast to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was closer to cities onthe Atlantic coast with large black populations, cities such as NewYork, Washington, D. C. and Baltimore. Two years later, sheestablished a laboratory and a factory in Indianapolis, Indiana.There, her products were developed and made. Some people criticizedMadam Walker’s products. They accused her of straightening blackwomen’s hair to make it look like white women’s hair. Some blackclergymen said that if black people were supposed to have straighthair, God would have given it to them. But Madam Walker said herpurpose was to help women have healthy hair. She also saidcleanliness was important. She established rules for cleanliness forher employees. Her rules later led to state laws covering jobsinvolving beauty treatment.
VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walkerbecame very rich and famous. She enjoyed her new life. She alsoshared her money. She became one of the few black people at the timewealthy enough to give huge amounts of money to help people andorganizations. She gave money to the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People, to churches and to cultural centers.
Madam Walker also supported many black artists and writers. And,she worked hard to end violations against the rights of blackpeople. In nineteen-seventeen, she was part of a group that went toWashington, D. C. to meet with President Woodrow Wilson. The groupurged him and Congress to make mob violence a federal crime. Innineteen-eighteen, Madam Walker finally settled in a town near NewYork City where she built a large, beautiful house. She continuedher work, but her health began to weaken. Her doctors advised her toslow down. But she would not listen. She died the next year. She wasfifty-one years old.
VOICE ONE: Madam C. J. Walker never forgot where she came from.Nor did she stop dreaming of how life could be. At a meeting of theNational Negro Business League, Madam Walker explained that she wasa woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. “I waspromoted from there to the washtub,” she said. “Then I was promotedto the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into thebusiness of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have builtmy own factory on my own ground. ” She not only improved her ownlife, but that of other women in similar situations. Madam C. J.Walker explained it this way, “If I have accomplished anything inlife, it is because I have been willing to work hard. “
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VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by VivianBournazian. I’m Rich Kleinfeldt.
VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week atthis time for another People in America program on the Voice ofAmerica.