Madame C.J. Walker Timeline

Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, in Delta, Louisiana, Madam C.J. Walker moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, with her sister Louvenia in 1882, married Moses McWilliams that year, gave birth to her daughter Lelia in 1885, and after McWilliams died in 1887 moved to St. Louis with her daughter. In 1905 she moved to Denver and developed the formula for Wonderful Hair Grower, and in 1906 she married Charles Joseph Walker and changed her name to Madam C.J. Walker. She moved to Pittsburgh in 1908 and opened Lelia College, then moved to Indianapolis in 1910 to build a factory. In 1912 she traveled throughout the United States selling products and speaking to major black organizations, donated $1,000 to Indianapolis' black YMCA, divorced C.J. Walker, and became a grandmother when her daughter adopted Mae Bryant. She traveled to the Caribbean and Central America on a sales trip in 1913, moved to Harlem in New York City in 1916, and in 1917 convened the first annual Madam C.J. Walker Hair Culturalists Union of America Convention and visited President Woodrow Wilson to urge him to make lynching a federal crime. At the time of her death in 1918, her estate, including real estate, accumulated assets, and company value, was worth a million dollars. In 1919 she contributed large sums to the NAACP anti-lynching fund and other causes and died on May 25 at Villa Lewaro. Construction for the Madam C.J. Walker Building was completed and it opened on December 26, 1927. Villa Lewaro was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, she became the 21st person honored in the USPS Black Heritage series in 1998, MWTC opened as a cultural arts center in 1988 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990, and in 2016 Sundial Brands launched Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture hair care products.

Indianapolis city (balance), Indiana · United States