Black History Month 2015: First  American Female Millionaire

Where does one start with Black History Month?  The Black  story remains essentially unchanged:   White superiority lies in  creating stories about black people inferiority.  We are not inferior to white people and Black people should not ever forget that!

• Sarah Breedlove
• What Is Black History Month?
• 2015: Malcolm X Was Right About America
• No Man Can Degrade The Soul Within Me
• Frederick Douglass – Quotes of Life and Struggle
• Life of Nelson Mandela: His Day is Done by Maya Angelou
• Maya Angelou – Our Grandmothers | I Am Human
• Maya Angelou Remembered
• Why leadership-development programs fail
• Malcolm X : Stand For Something or Fall For Anything

 Sarah Breedlove

Recently, a friend asked me who was the first female millionaire?   Incorrectly, I guessed Oprah.    The first female millionaire in America was Sarah Breedlove (December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919), known as Madam C. J. Walker, was the first female self-made millionaire in America.  She was also a philanthropist.  Such knowledge is not to be found in USA schools or education, why?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like many women of her era, Sarah experienced hair loss primarily because of poor diet, hygiene practices and harsh products like lye that were included in soaps used to cleanse the hair.^[1][2] Because most Americans lacked indoor plumbing, central heating and electricity, they bathed and washed their hair infrequently. Initially she learned about hair care from her brothers, who owned a barber shop in St. Louis.

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Around the time of the 1904 World’s Fair, she became a commission agent selling products for Annie Turnbo Malone, an African American hair care entrepreneur. While working with Annie Malone, she adapted her knowledge of hair and hair products. She moved to Denver to work on her hair care products, and married Charles Joseph Walker, a newspaper advertising salesman. She emerged with the name Madam C. J. Walker, an independent hairdresser and retailer of cosmetic creams. After their marriage Charles Walker provided advice on advertising and promotion, while Madam C. J. Walker trained women to become “beauty culturists” and to learn the art of selling. In 1906, Madam Walker put her daughter A’Lelia (née McWilliams) in charge of the mail order operation while she and her husband traveled throughout the southern and eastern United States to expand the business.

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Inspired by the model of the National Association of Colored Women, she began to organize her sales agents into local and state clubs. In 1917 she convened her first annual conference of the Madam Walker Beauty Culturists in Philadelphia. During the convention she gave prizes not only to the women who had sold the most products and brought in the most new sales agents, but also to those who had contributed the most to charity in their communities. She stressed the importance of philanthropy and political engagement.^[1] This had a huge impact on expanding her business. She also started her own mail order business to keep up with the booming business, placing her daughter A’Lelia Walker in charge of it.^[2][4]

 

Madam C. J. Walker

What Is Black History Month?	2015: Malcolm X Was Right About America	Frederick Douglass – Quotes of Life and Struggle
In 1926 in the United States, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be “Negro History Week.”[1] This week was chosen because it coincided with the birthday of Abraham Lincoln on February 12 and of Frederick Douglass on February 14, both of which dates Black communities had celebrated together since the late 19th century. Read more about Black History Month	“We’re anti-evil, anti-oppression, anti-lynching,” Malcolm said. “You can’t be anti- those things unless you’re also anti- the oppressor and the lyncher. You can’t be anti-slavery and pro-slavemaster; you can’t be anti-crime and pro-criminal. In fact, Mr. Muhammad teaches that if the present generation of whites would study their own race in the light of true history, they would be anti-white themselves.” Read more Malcolm X	Confusion everywhere justice nowhere! This is America now. The future looks dismal.Justice should not be reserved for the few but should be for All. Stop the persecution of black and brown people by police officers in America. Read more Quotes of Life and Struggle.