Reading Task 4

Madam C.J. Walker is an important figure in African American history. She was born on December 23, 1867 in Delta, Louisiana. Her parents named her Sarah Breedlove. She was the first member of her family to be born free. Her parents had been slaves. As a young woman she worked as a laundress, washing other people’s clothes for fifty cents a day.

In the early 1900s, few African Americans lived in homes with running water or electricity. Most women only washed their hair once a month. As a result, scalp disease was a problem for many people, including Sarah Breedlove. When her hair began to fall out, she had an idea. She wanted to create a line of hair care products that would help women in her situation.

In 1905, Breedlove moved to Denver, Colorado where she worked for Annie Malone, a female African American entrepreneur who manufactured hair care products. Breedlove learned from Malone and collaborated with a local pharmacist to develop her own formulas. In 1906, Breedlove married a St. Louis newspaperman named Charles Joseph Walker. She changed her name to Madam C. J. Walker and moved her business, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1910, Walker divorced her husband and moved her company to Indianapolis, Indiana.

Walker was proud that her company provided well-paying jobs to African American women.

Walker’s employees made from five to fifteen dollars a day during a time when many women made only eleven dollars a week doing domestic work. Walker also made large donations to charitable and advocacy organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She also supported historically black colleges, like the Tuskegee Institute.

Walker commissioned one of the first African American architects, Vertner Tandy, to build an Italian-style home for her in the suburbs of New York City. She called it “Villa Lewaro” and she loved to entertain guests there. She also owned townhouses in New York City and Indianapolis. Madam C. J. Walker is credited as the first female self-made millionaire, black or white. She died in 1919 at age 51 due to kidney failure. She was known for her entrepreneurial spirit. She once said, “There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.”

Her daughter, A’Lelia Walker, followed in her mother’s footsteps as a hostess and philanthropist. She became a prominent New York City socialite and patron to many revolutionary causes.

"Walker also made large donations to charitable and advocacy organizations." In this context, what does "organization" most closely mean?