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Madam Walker before and after using her shampoo and “Wonderful Hair Grower”
Madam Walker and her daughter, A’Lelia Walker, in Indianapolis (aleliabundles.com)
Madam Walker was a member of the 1917 Negro Silent Protest Parade committee.
Valentines Day- Financially Yours
14 Feb
Cupid’s arrow strikes gold on Valentine’s Day
From sellers of flowers to purveyors of chocolates to restaurateurs, Cupid’s arrow strikes gold for many small businesses on Valentine’s Day.
In the United States, consumers are expected to drop $17.6-billion on Valentine’s Day gifts and activities this year, according to the National Retail Federation, as quoted in this story. According to a survey the NRF carried out, they’ll spend $126.03 apiece, which is up 8.5 per cent over last year and a record for the 10 year the survey has been conducted.
Canadians are no Valentine’s Day spending slouches either. According to this CTV News story, Canadians will drop an average of $126 apiece.
And according to this Valentine’s Day By the Numbers, compiled by Statistics Canada, Canadians spent $1.6-billion on lingerie and other intimate items and $3-billion on jewellery and watches in 2010. They spent $5.8-billion on wine in 2009-2010 and $1.5-billion on chocolate in 2009. 3 That doesn’t taken into account the 12 million roses they purchased in 2010.
ABC News reports that florists are seeing an unprecedented demand for roses this Valentine’s Day. One reason that might be happening: With Valentine’s Day falling mid-week this year, many men are caught by surprise, suggests this story. While on a weekend, they might peruse stores for “cheaper chocolates or stuffed animals,” at mid-week, they go for quick and easy flower deliveries, and are willing to pay a premium.
Anxious to find a unique gift? Huffington Post offers a slide show of items made by “some of America’s most creative entrepreneurs.”
Small Business Trends offers a nice roundup of stories across the Net today about Valentine’s Day — even why it’s turned into big business in China and Iran.
But here’s some food for thought for those in the selling business: This MSNBC story poses the question of whether businesses risk alienating consumers by inflating prices on Valentine’s Day. And one business coach reminds small businesses to share the love with customers all year round.
U.S. small business confidence makes insignificant gain: NFIB
U.S. small business confidence made the slightest of gains in January, but is still sitting at recession levels, according to the latest index of small business optimism from the National Federation of Independent Business.
The index gained 0.1 points to reach a level of 93.9 in January. That was the highest reading since December, 2007, when the recession began, but, even though the index made gains five months in a row, it’s still below where it was a year ago, according to the NFIB.
“Nothing happened last month that would significantly improve the small-business outlook,” said NFIB chief economist William Dunkelberg in a statement. “The index remains below its level a year ago of 94.1, which means that no progress was made in 2011.”
EVENTS AND KEY DATES
Social media smarts
Join our very own Sean Stanleigh as he moderates a panel of socia media experts who will talk about how small businesses can leverage social media platforms and online tools to grow their businesses. The event, called “Accelerating Small Business Growth in our Economic Times,” presented by Bank of Montreal and part of Social Media Week Toronto, takes place in Toronto on Thurs, Feb. 16. For more information, click here.
B.C. small business awards
The ninth annual Small Business BC Successful You Awards night will take place on Feb. 28 in Vancouver. The province-wide contest recognizes and celebrates important contributions of B.C. entrepreneurs. For more details, click here.
EDITOR’S PICKS FROM REPORT ON SMALL BUSINESS
Red-hot dating apps to spice up your love life
Sick of spending Friday nights alone? Eager to get back in the saddle, but turned off by traditional dating sites, like eHarmony, Plenty of Fish and Match.com? Check out our lineup of cutting-edge mobile apps, which use real-time, GPS and push notifications, can help you meet new people, and maybe even score a date for Valentine’s Day
FROM THE ROSB ARCHIVES
Couples share the love in business
In case you missed it last Valentine’s Day, three couples who took the entrepreneurial leap of faith by going into business together shared what they learned from the experience.
Valentine’s Day Business
(ABC 6 News) — Valentine’s Day is considered one of the biggest gift-giving holidays of the year.
In fact, the National Retail Federation says as Americans we’re expected to shell out more than $17 billion on Valentine’s Day stuff this year.
That’s no surprise to local retailers. For many shops, it’s the busiest day of the year.
“Probably 20 times busier than a typical day,” Flowers by Jerry owner Kevin Patton says.
At Flowers by Jerry, it’s not the hundreds of red balloons, candy, or teddy bears that makes it the craziest day of the year, it’s the flowers.
“We had to rent eight delivery vehicles. I probably have about 15 drivers out today,” Patton explains.
That’s what it takes to deliver 600 bouquets. Throw in a few hundred walk ins and last minute orders, and you can see why they need all the help they can get.
“Roses are the number one. The mixed arrangements are number two,” Patton says.
But if flowers aren’t your thing, there’s always chocolate.
“These are long stemmed strawberries. They were picked last night in California and flown in this morning,” White Wolf Creek owner David Christenson says.
It’s just one of many sweet treats you can find at White Wolf Creek, but their specialty is the annual wild game dinner for two.
“Alligator crepes which has alligator, crab and shrimp in it. Then we’ll be doing also a duck crepe this evening. It has a wild rice and duck in a raspberry sauce,” Christenson explains.
Other menu items include wild boar and rainbow trout.
It’s a unique way to show that special someone just how much you care.
“Last year we had a line out the door,” Christenson says.
But White Wolf Creek wasn’t the only shop with a line out its door.
“Today has been extremely busy,” Diane Schaap of Chocolaterie Sam says.
Chocolaterie Sam had a line out the door all morning. Countless shoppers rushed to get that last minute gift.
“Men will run in. They say, “I need a box, put a bow on it. Make it pretty.” Then they’re out of here,” Schaap says.
After everyone bought their flowers and chocolates, the last minute shopping moved to restaurants.
Many feature special meals and decorations to celebrate the holiday.
Florist
Florists do brisk business thanks to Valentine’s Day
Florists did roaring business of an estimated Rs.10 crore in Delhi and neighbouring cities on Tuesday with the demand for flowers, particularly roses and carnations, soaring on Valentine’s Day that symbolises affection, love and romance.
It also goes without saying that the day left a deep hole in the pockets of buyers as the price of a single rose was as high as Rs.100 at some places.
“Valentine’s Day (February 14) is a golden day for florists,” All-India Cut Flower and Growers’ Association president Brij Mohan Khanagwal told PTI.
Flowers worth over Rs.10 crore were sold in a single day on Tuesday in Delhi and cities of Lucknow, Jaipur, Jammu and Patiala, he said.
Sher Singh Saini, a wholesaler at Ghazipur, the biggest wholesale flower market in the national Capital, said sales were nearly two times higher on Tuesday as compared to any other day. In fact, this year sales have been picking up for the past one week, he added.
Ferns ‘n’ Petals, with 113 outlets across the country, said sales are almost 10 times more in its outlets today as compared to a normal day. The maximum sales were in Delhi where it has 34 outlets, said an F ‘n’ P official, Tarana. Roses, especially red ones, and carnations registered high sales, she added.
Khanagwal said Delhi receives roses mainly from Bangalore and Pune, while carnations are brought from Himachal Pradesh and Dehra Dun in addition to Bangalore and Pune.
Orchids sourced from Thailand and Bangkok are also in great demand, Saini said.
Traders said a single rose is sold for Rs.10 in wholesale while carnation costs between Rs.10 and 15 apiece. The retail prices ranged from Rs.50 to 100 apiece, they said.
Delhi is Asia’s largest flower market. India’s flower production stands at around 1,000 tonnes per annum and most of the flower trade occur in the Delhi region.
There are a total of about 500 flower sellers in Delhi, said Khanagwal, who owns a flower outlet in Connaught Place. – PTI
references:
http://kaaltv.com/article/stories/S2496958.shtml?cat=10226
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article2895608.ece
Bio- Percy Sutton
10 Feb
(November 24, 1920 – December 26, 2009) was a prominent black American political and business leader. A civil-rights activist and lawyer, he was also a Freedom Rider and the legal representative for Malcolm X. He was the highest-ranking African-American elected official in New York City when he was Manhattan boroughpresident from 1966 to 1977, the longest tenure at that position. He later became an entrepreneur whose included investments included the New York Amsterdam News and the Apollo Theater in Harlem.[1]
references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Sutton
Bio- Clara Brown
8 Feb
(c. 1800–1885) was a former slave from Virginia who became a community leader, philanthropist and aided settlement of former slaves during the time of Colorado‘s Gold Rush.
Brown was born in Virginia in 1800. She married another slave when she was eighteen and together they had four children. In 1835, Brown’s family was broken apart when they were all sold to different slave owners; Clara was sold to a plantation owner in Kentucky. When Brown was 56 years-of-age, she received her freedom and required by law to leave the state worked her way west as a cook and laundress to Denver, Colorado.
Brown settled in the mining town now called Central City, Colorado where she worked as a laundress, cook and mid-wife. With the money she made, she invested in properties and mines in nearby towns. Known as “Aunt Clara” for her emotional and financial support, Brown was a founding member of a Sunday school, made her home available for prayer services and generously supported the community.
At the end of the Civil War, Brown could freely travel and liquidated all of her investments to travel to Kentucky to find her daughter. Although she was unsuccessful, she paid the way for 16 or more relatives and others who were former slaves to move to Colorado. Finally in 1882 she reunited with Eliza Jane and Eliza Jane’s daughter. In 1885, the last year of her life, Clara Brown was voted into the Society of Colorado Pioneers for her role in Colorado’s early history.
references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Brown
- Clara Brown Biography (1800-1885). Biography Channel. A&E Network. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
- Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, Clara Brown. Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
- Hill, A. (1915). Colorado pioneers in picture and story. Denver: Brock-Hafner Press.
- Katz, W. (1995) Black Women of the Old West. Chapter 7, Clara Brown of Colorado. New York: Antheum Books for Young Readers, Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-689-319440.
- Reiter, Joan S. (1978). The Old West: The Women. Time-Life Books ISBN 0-8094-1514-3
- Varnell, Jeanne (1999). Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. Boulder: Johnson Press. ISBN 1-55566-214-5.
- Wishart, David J. (2004). “Brown, “Aunt” Clara”. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-4787-7.
Bio- William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr.
7 Feb
(October 23, 1810 – May 18, 1848) was one of the earliest mixed-race U.S. citizens in California and a highly successful, enterprising businessman. He was a West Indian immigrant of African Cuban, possibly Carib, Danish and Jewish ancestry. William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. became a United States citizen in New Orleans in 1834. He migrated to California in 1841, then under Mexican rule, settling in Yerba Buena (San Francisco), a village of about 30 European-Mexican families.
He became a Mexican citizen in 1844 and received a land grant from the Mexican government, 8 Spanish leagues, or 35,500 acres (144 km2) south of the American River, known as Rancho Rio de los Americanos. He served as US Vice Consul to Mexico at the Port of San Francisco beginning in 1845. Leidesdorff was Presdident of the San Francisco school board and also elected as City Treasurer. Shortly before Leidesdorff’s death, vast amounts of gold were officially reported on his Rancho Rio De los Americanos. By the time his estate was auctioned off in 1856, it was worth more than $1,445,000, not including vast quantities of gold mined upon his land.
International Leidesdorff Bicentennial Celebrations will feature the “Golden Legacy of William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr.” On October 22, 2011 on his native isle of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, a special event will highlight the season of celebrations.
Super Bowl XLVI Biz
5 Feb
KICKOFF @ 6:30 pm est
The Super Bowl is a big game for NFL fans and players, and it’s arguably an even bigger day for business interests surrounding the event. Here’s a look at some of the stats that have nothing whatsoever to do with what happens on the field, but a lot concerning how much money is spent.
59 Percentage of respondents in a recent survey who said they’d prefer to watch the big game on a state-of-the-art TV rather than sit in the stands. Considering that a Super Bowl ticket starts at around $2,800 and goes much higher, it’s probably cheaper to buy a high-quality new TV too.
$15,499.99 Price of a Super Bowl package sold by Costco that includes two tickets to the game, four nights in an Indianapolis hotel, and admission to a pre-game party and an annual food-and-wine event called “Taste of the NFL.”
(VIDEO: Super Bowl XLVI Preview)
1,957 Number of complaints received by the Better Business Bureau regarding ticket sellers in 2011, the most ever logged.
254 Number of temporary seats sold for this year’s Super Bowl at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. This figure is small compared to last year’s Super Bowl, when some 1,250 ticketholders arrived in Texas only to discover they didn’t have the seats they expected—or any seats at all. A scandal erupted as hundreds of ticketholders had to watch the game on TV monitors in the stadium’s basement.
41 Percentage of men who say they’ve bet on the Super Bowl. Only 21% of women admit to having wagered on the game.
80 to 1 The highest odds that sports books in Nevada gave bettors who wagered that the Giants would win the Super Bowl. These odds were given earlier in the season, after the Giants lost four games in a row. A gambler placing, say, a $100 bet on the Giants then stands to win $8,000 if the G-Men come out on top next Sunday.
(MORE: How the Super Bowl Has Morphed into an Entire Season for Advertising)
$500,000 Amount that rapper 50 Cent reportedly won betting on the Giants to win the NFC Championship Game against San Francisco. For the Super Bowl, the rapper has supposedly agreed to Tweet a photo of his private parts if the Giants lose.
$5 Million Reported amount that rapper Birdman wants to bet on the Patriots to win on Sunday. Has he met 50 Cent?
$94 Million Record-setting total for bets placed on the Super Bowl in 2006. Sports books, of course, are hoping that this year’s game sets a new all-time high.
$205 Million Estimated amount lost by American employers every 10 minutes that employees spend talking about the Super Bowl on the job rather than working.
600+ Number of private jets that flew into Dallas for the big game last year, a Super Bowl record. This year, a new record for private planes is expected to be set.
$3.5 Million Average amount paid to NBC for a 30-second commercial in the Super Bowl. Guess how much advertisers paid to air commercials during the first Super Bowl in 1967? $42,000, or an increase of 8,333%.
(MORE: The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials of 2011)
44 Percentage of women who say they watch the Super Bowl “primarily for the commercials.” As for men, 31% tune in mainly to check out the ads.
At Least 10 Number of automotive brands expected to advertise during the Super Bowl (Acura, Audi, Chevy, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Suzuki, Toyota, Volkswagen). Several of the car ads, including a vampire-themed commercial for Audi, a reprisal of Ferris Bueller by Matthew Broderick for Honda, and, of course, the Volkswagen “canine choir” barking out a “Star Wars” song, have been leaked online so that automakers can get eyeballs on their products long before the game.
50 Approximate percentage of Super Bowl ads that were available to view online several days before they air on TV during the game, leading a Chicago Tribune columnist to wonder whether watching them on Sunday will feel anticlimactic.
$11 Billion Estimated total that’ll be spent on the Super Bowl by American consumers this year. The average viewer is expected to drop $63.87 on snacks, beverages, and apparel, up from $59.33 a year ago. The numbers may skew high because of folks like 50 Cent and Birdman, who probably spend a bit more than average to celebrate the Super Bowl.
Brad Tuttle is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @bradrtuttle. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.
references:
Read other related stories about this:
- Secrets of Winning Super Bowl Car AdsForbes
- Super Bowl XLVI commercials reviewed earlyThe New York Daily News
Bio- Paul Cuffe
5 Feb(1759-1817)
Entrepreneur, sea captain, social activist, philanthropist, colonizationist and leader who fought for the empowerment of African Americans.
By Vanessa Julye
The 1842 seal of Captain Paul Cuffe, showing his brig Traveler in which he provided passage for freed slaves to Sierra Leone (photo courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum).Paul Cuffe was born in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts in a family of ten children. His father Kofi was a manumitted enslaved African and a member of the Akan tribe of Ghana. Paul Cuffee’s mother, Ruth Moses, was a Native American of the Wampanoag tribe from Martha’s Vineyard. Ebenezer Slocum, a Friend, purchased Kofi (later Cuffe Slocum) in the 1720s. Twenty-two years later John Slocum purchased Cuffe Slocum from his uncle and freed him in 1745. Although Paul Cuffe’s parents had been strongly influenced by Friends, there is no evidence that they belonged to a Quaker meeting.
Paul Cuffe taught himself mathematics, navigation, and other seafaring skills, and earned his wealth through whaling and trade in the Americas and Europe. His shipping career began at the age of sixteen, when he signed up to be a member of a whaling vessel. Cuffe began building his shipping enterprise during the Revolutionary War, and over a period of years he owned shares in up to ten ships. During the War he built a boat with his brother, David, and the two of them smuggled merchandise through British blockades. In 1793 Cuffe married Alice Pequit, with whom he had six children named Paul, William, Mary, Ruth, Alice and Rhoda. During that period in American history the shipping industry was dangerous because of the constant threat of pirates. But purchasing and delivering merchandise on the Atlantic coast, specifically in the South, was particularly hazardous for Cuffe and his crew because they were all African American. In 1793 Congress passed a fugitive slave law that gave owners of enslaved Africans the right to retrieve an escaped enslaved person from another state. The enslaved were not entitled to a trial, a hearing, or able to testify for themselves. This law put Cuffe and his crew in continual peril of being kidnapped and sold. Paul Cuffe saw education as a means of liberation, and he fought for equal rights in many ways. He was always eager to teach young men who wanted to learn the science of navigation and skills of a merchantman. In 1799 he established a school on his own property in Westport, Massachusetts that was open to all children regardless of their race. In 1800 he bought a gristmill in Acoaxet, and was a century and a half ahead of his time when he urged mills to include African Americans in the planning stages of organizations whose goal was helping blacks. He encouraged African Americans up and down the East Coast to think about their social and economic status. In 1780, when only men of European descent had the right to vote, he and other African Americans protested taxation on his father’s estate on the grounds of no taxation without representation. Despite his long involvement with Friends, Paul Cuffe did not join Westport Monthly Meeting until 1806, when he was forty-nine. He dressed in the manner of Friends, wearing Quaker gray along with a wide-brimmed black hat. In mid-September 1810 Cuffe shared a leading he was experiencing with his meeting: to establish a trading community in Sierra Leone that would trade goods instead of humans. A committee was appointed to meet with and advise him on this matter. During the October business meeting a letter of recommendation was read and approved, and Cuffe also received a traveling minute from New England Yearly Meeting for this undertaking. It was the first of three minutes Cuffe would receive from for his travels related to establishing this system of commerce in Sierra Leone. Cuffe became an important and well-respected member of the Religious Society of Friends. During Westport’s January 1813 business meeting Cuffe was one of six members appointed to rebuild the old meetinghouse. At yearly meeting sessions in 1815 he was asked by the Meeting for Sufferings to help make decisions about the Meeting House in Boston.
By Vanessa Julye
The 1842 seal of Captain Paul Cuffe, showing his brig Traveler in which he provided passage for freed slaves to Sierra Leone (photo courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum).Paul Cuffe was born in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts in a family of ten children. His father Kofi was a manumitted enslaved African and a member of the Akan tribe of Ghana. Paul Cuffee’s mother, Ruth Moses, was a Native American of the Wampanoag tribe from Martha’s Vineyard. Ebenezer Slocum, a Friend, purchased Kofi (later Cuffe Slocum) in the 1720s. Twenty-two years later John Slocum purchased Cuffe Slocum from his uncle and freed him in 1745. Although Paul Cuffe’s parents had been strongly influenced by Friends, there is no evidence that they belonged to a Quaker meeting.Paul Cuffe taught himself mathematics, navigation, and other seafaring skills, and earned his wealth through whaling and trade in the Americas and Europe. His shipping career began at the age of sixteen, when he signed up to be a member of a whaling vessel. Cuffe began building his shipping enterprise during the Revolutionary War, and over a period of years he owned shares in up to ten ships. During the War he built a boat with his brother, David, and the two of them smuggled merchandise through British blockades. In 1793 Cuffe married Alice Pequit, with whom he had six children named Paul, William, Mary, Ruth, Alice and Rhoda. During that period in American history the shipping industry was dangerous because of the constant threat of pirates. But purchasing and delivering merchandise on the Atlantic coast, specifically in the South, was particularly hazardous for Cuffe and his crew because they were all African American. In 1793 Congress passed a fugitive slave law that gave owners of enslaved Africans the right to retrieve an escaped enslaved person from another state. The enslaved were not entitled to a trial, a hearing, or able to testify for themselves. This law put Cuffe and his crew in continual peril of being kidnapped and sold. Paul Cuffe saw education as a means of liberation, and he fought for equal rights in many ways. He was always eager to teach young men who wanted to learn the science of navigation and skills of a merchantman. In 1799 he established a school on his own property in Westport, Massachusetts that was open to all children regardless of their race. In 1800 he bought a gristmill in Acoaxet, and was a century and a half ahead of his time when he urged mills to include African Americans in the planning stages of organizations whose goal was helping blacks. He encouraged African Americans up and down the East Coast to think about their social and economic status. In 1780, when only men of European descent had the right to vote, he and other African Americans protested taxation on his father’s estate on the grounds of no taxation without representation. Despite his long involvement with Friends, Paul Cuffe did not join Westport Monthly Meeting until 1806, when he was forty-nine. He dressed in the manner of Friends, wearing Quaker gray along with a wide-brimmed black hat. In mid-September 1810 Cuffe shared a leading he was experiencing with his meeting: to establish a trading community in Sierra Leone that would trade goods instead of humans. A committee was appointed to meet with and advise him on this matter. During the October business meeting a letter of recommendation was read and approved, and Cuffe also received a traveling minute from New England Yearly Meeting for this undertaking. It was the first of three minutes Cuffe would receive from for his travels related to establishing this system of commerce in Sierra Leone. Cuffe became an important and well-respected member of the Religious Society of Friends. During Westport’s January 1813 business meeting Cuffe was one of six members appointed to rebuild the old meetinghouse. At yearly meeting sessions in 1815 he was asked by the Meeting for Sufferings to help make decisions about the Meeting House in Boston.
Resources:
More Resources on Paul Cuffe
- “Paul Cuffe: Early Pan-Africanist”; By Rosalind Cobb Wiggins; in Black Quakers, Brief Biographies; Kenneth Ives, Editor; Progresiv Publishr, 1995; (out of print, available at some libraries)
- Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters, 1808-1817: A Black Quaker’s Voice from within the Veil; By Rosalind Cobb Wiggins; Howard University Press, 1996
- Memoir of Captain Paul Cuffe, Liverpool Mercury; Africans in America Resource Bank, WGBH Boston;
- Rise to Be A People; By Lamont D. Thomas; University of Illinois Press, 1986.
Bio- Madame CJ Walker
4 Feb
Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 on a Delta, Louisiana plantation, this daughter of former slaves transformed herself from an uneducated farm laborer and laundress into one of the twentieth century’s most successful, self-made women entrepreneurs.
Orphaned at age seven, she often said, “I got my start by giving myself a start.” She and her older sister, Louvenia, survived by working in the cotton fields of Delta and nearby Vicksburg, Mississippi. At 14, she married Moses McWilliams to escape abuse from her cruel brother-in-law, Jesse Powell.
Her only daughter, Lelia (later known as A’Lelia Walker) was born on June 6, 1885. When her husband died two years later, she moved to St. Louis to join her four brothers who had established themselves as barbers. Working for as little as $1.50 a day, she managed to save enough money to educate her daughter in the city’s public schools. Friendships with other black women who were members of St. Paul A.M.E. Church and the National Association of Colored Women exposed her to a new way of viewing the world.
Madam Walker before and after using her shampoo and “Wonderful Hair Grower”During the 1890s, Sarah began to suffer from a scalp ailment that caused her to lose most of her hair. She experimented with many homemade remedies and store-bought products, including those made by Annie Malone, another black woman entrepreneur. In 1905 Sarah moved to Denver as a sales agent for Malone, then married her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman. After changing her name to “Madam” C. J. Walker, she founded her own business and began selling Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing formula, which she claimed had been revealed to her in a dream. Madam Walker, by the way, did NOT invent the straightening comb or chemical perms, though many people incorrectly believe that to be true.
To promote her products, the new “Madam C.J. Walker” traveled for a year and a half on a dizzying crusade throughout the heavily black South and Southeast, selling her products door to door, demonstrating her scalp treatments in churches and lodges, and devising sales and marketing strategies. In 1908, she temporarily moved her base to Pittsburgh where she opened Lelia College to train Walker “hair culturists.”
Madam Walker and her daughter, A’Lelia Walker, in Indianapolis (aleliabundles.com)By early 1910, she had settled in Indianapolis, then the nation’s largest inland manufacturing center, where she built a factory, hair and manicure salon and another training school. Less than a year after her arrival, Walker grabbed national headlines in the black press when she contributed $1,000 to the building fund of the “colored” YMCA in Indianapolis.
In 1913, while Walker traveled to Central America and the Caribbean to expand her business, her daughter A’Lelia, moved into a fabulous new Harlem townhouse and Walker Salon, designed by black architect, Vertner Tandy. “There is nothing to equal it,” she wrote to her attorney, F.B. Ransom. “Not even on Fifth Avenue.”
Walker herself moved to New York in 1916, leaving the day-to-day operations of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis to Ransom and Alice Kelly, her factory forelady and a former school teacher. She continued to oversee the business and to work in the New York office. Once in Harlem, she quickly became involved in Harlem’s social and political life, taking special interest in the NAACP’s anti-lynching movement to which she contributed $5,000.
Madam Walker was a member of the 1917 Negro Silent Protest Parade committee.In July 1917, when a white mob murdered more than three dozen blacks in East St. Louis, Illinois, Walker joined a group of Harlem leaders who visited the White House to present a petition advocating federal anti-lynching legislation.
As her business continued to grow, Walker organized her agents into local and state clubs. Her Madam C. J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America convention in Philadelphia in 1917 must have been one of the first national meetings of businesswomen in the country. Walker used the gathering not only to reward her agents for their business success, but to encourage their political activism as well. “This is the greatest country under the sun,” she told them. “But we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice. We should protest until the American sense of justice is so aroused that such affairs as the East St. Louis riot be forever impossible.”
By the time she died at her estate, Villa Lewaro, in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, she had helped create the role of the 20th Century, self-made American businesswoman; established herself as a pioneer of the modern black hair-care and cosmetics industry; and set standards in the African-American community for corporate and community giving.
Tenacity and perseverance, faith in herself and in God, quality products and “honest business dealings” were the elements and strategies she prescribed for aspiring entrepreneurs who requested the secret to her rags-to-riches ascent. “There is no royal flower-strewn path to success,” she once commented. “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.”
References
