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February 9, 2000
B la c k H is to ry
M
>nih
empowered women who had taken
M adam’s challenge, “Look Your
Best for Success,” to heart - and
achieved both.
In an o rg a n iz a tio n a l
stra te g y fa m ilia r to d a y but
revolutionary then. Walker agents
were in business for themselves.
O rg a n iz e d into a netw ork o f
Following the death o f her husband. Madame C.J. Walker worked as a
launderer, while developing a number o f hair preparations. In 1906, she
moved to Denver, married journalist Charles J. Walker, and began
marketingherproducts. By 1910, Walkerwasabletobuildamanufacturing
plant in Indianapolis and was soon a millionaire. She employed 3,000
workers and inspired numerous entrepreneurs.
By J anis A dams
What a stunning climb it
had been for the day she arrived in
Denver, broke but not broken, from
Delta, Louisiana, in 1905, to the
incorporation o f her own company
in 1911, to being one ofthe nation’s
wealthiest women, to this day. On
August 30, and 31,1917, more than
two hundred delegated gathered at
U nion
B a p tist C h u rc h
in
Philadelphia for the first annual
convention o f the M adam C.J.
Walker Manufacturing Company.
And what a triumph it was for this
m u ltitu d e o f b e a u tifu l, se lf-
business and social clubs, agents
shared sales and service strategies,
trained at the school named for
Madam’s daughter A ’ Lei ia Walker.
Forthese entrepreneurs,as one 1913
ad proclaimed, “A diploma from
Lelia College o f Hair Culture is a
Passport to Prosperity.” When a
southern domestic earned $2 per
week and her northern sister earned
$10, the average W alker agent
earned $23. With W alker’s profit-
sharing plans, agents reaped greater
financial rewards for themselves,
their families, and theircommunities
than most oftheir white male peers.
IJortlanit Observer
Focus
M
Minority Enterprise
By C u l p A nderson , E d .P.
Blacks enjoyed limited
success as businessmen, usually in
“safe,” non-competitive businesses
that served the Black community.
Besides a few professional services
such as teaching, banking and
insurance, most Black entrepreneurs
made their living providing hair
care services and products, domestic
service, food preparation, catering,
c ra fts and p u b lish in g w eekly
newspapers. These were primarily
personal service businesses, and
w ere considered “ap p ro p riate”
opportunities for Blacks. Such
services produced some ofthe most
affluent Blacks in the country and
represent the beginnings o f a Black
upper class.
W h ite
and
B lack
cu stom ers alike sought B lack
barbers and beauticians for their
skills in hair care. These services
w ere o fte n p ro v id e d in the
customer’s office or home.
p h ilo so p h y p ro fe sso r w h o se
anthology “The New Negro”alerted
the world in 1925 that something
approaching a cultural evolution
was taking place among blacks in
New York, as well as elsewhere in
the U nited States and perhaps
around the w orld,” as A rnold
Rampersad put it in his introduction
to the 1992 edition o f the book. Say
“The New Negro,” and we think o f
sociologist Charles S. Johnson, and
founder o f the National Urban
League’s magazine Opportunity;
Jessie Fauset, literary editor o f the
N A A C P ’s th e C risis; A rth u r
Schomburg, who urged blacks to
dig up and into their past and whose
personal library was the foundation
o f the Schom burg C e n te r for
R esearch in B lack C u ltu re in
Harlem.
We remember so many
others from that crew o f electric
minds and expectant hearts: people
bo rn fo r th e m ost p a rt a fte r
Reconstruction; people for whom
slavery was history, albeit recent.
Hot Lips Pizza
Recognizes
Black History M onth
N
New N egro M ovement
By_To.M A .ByLU L>
Say “The New Negro,”
and quite naturally, we remember
Alain Locke, the Howard University
Raleigh Hills 4825 SW 76th 297-8424
Downtown 1909 SW 6th Ave 224-0311
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