Madam C.J. Walker (Wikimedia Commons)

Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) was no stranger to hard work. Originally given the name Sarah Breedlove, she was born on a Louisiana plantation. Since both her parents had died when she was young, she was forced to take a job working in a cotton field at age 7. At 14, she married, and she gave birth to a daughter four years later. Walker's husband died when their baby was 2 years old. Walker and her daughter then moved to St. Louis, where Walker worked for as little as $1.50 a day to support her daughter.

In the 1890s, Walker began to suffer from a scalp condition that caused her to lose most of her hair. Horrified, she began experimenting with homemade remedies. One of them worked, and she was able to regrow her hair. She moved to Denver in 1905, married Charles Joseph Walker, and started a hair-care business. To make her products sound more elegant, she added "Madam" to her name.

Walker went door-to-door for a year and a half, selling her Wonderful Hair Grower, which she claimed would condiiton and heal scalps. Walker said she stumbled upon the formula in a dream. She promised her products would transform stubborn, dull hair into a smooth, shiny mane.

An advertisement for Madam C.J. Walker's hair products. (Library of Congress)

She soon had a following of "hair culturists," who demonstrated and sold her products across the country. Walker opened trianing schools for hair culturists in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, in addition to a factory and a hair and nail salon.

Her business boomed. At one point she emploed more than 3,000 people, making Walker the first black woman to become a self-made millionaire. The more prosperous she became, the more time and money Walker was able to devote to black causes. She was especially active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Learn more about Madam C.J. Walker: Watch this conversation between U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and A'Lelia Bundles, Madam C.J. Walker's great-great granddaughter and biographer.

©2003, 2011 Weekly Reader Corporation. A version of this article originally appeared in Current Events, February 7, 2003.