Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867, Madam C.J. Walker became a beauty products pioneer and one of the nation's first female millionaires. In the early 1900s, using her husband's name (Charles Joseph Walker), she developed a very successful business manufacturing hair goods and preparations, and her company eventually became one of the country's largest businesses owned by an African-American. Walker also became one of the era's leading African-American philanthropists and political activists, strongly supporting education, charitable institutions, political rights, and economic opportunities for African-Americans and women.
