Sarah Breedlove was born near Delta, Louisiana, into a family of sharecroppers. As a child she worked in the cotton fields. At age 14 she married and four years later she gave birth to a daughter, A’Leila. By the time Breedlove was 20 years old, her husband had died, apparently killed by a lynch mob. She moved to St. Louis and worked as a cook and laundress for the next 17 years. By 1905 she had developed a hair-conditioner treatment for African American hair. She opened a hair preparations company, which she operated out of her attic. In 1906 she married journalist C. J. Walker and named her company Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. At its peak her company employed some 3,000 people, with more than 25,000 African American women as sales agents. In 1908 she moved to Pittsburgh where she founded Leila College. By 1910 Walker had established beauty parlors, production facilities, and laboratories throughout the United States, and in the Caribbean and South America. She became one of the first female African American millionaires. Until her death Walker was a generous supporter to African American causes, particularly schools and equal rights organizations.
