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Madame C.J. Walker
(23 Dec 1867 - 25 May 1919)
Black-American businessperson and inventor who invented a metal heating comb and conditioner for straightening hair. She made her fortune by her hugely successful marketing and developing of hair and beauty products for black women. She has been called the first self-accomplished American millionairess.
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Science Quotes by Madame C.J. Walker (5 quotes)
I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations….I have built my own factory on my own ground.
— Madame C.J. Walker
From speech (Jul 1912) to the National Negro Business League Convention. Quoted in New York Times (2000), as cited in The Big Book of Business Quotations (2003), 2.
I am not merely satisfied in making money for myself, for I am endeavoring to provide employment for hundreds of women of my race. ... I want to say to every Negro woman present, don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!
— Madame C.J. Walker
Address at the annual convention of the National Negro Business League (1914). As cited in Marshall Cavendish Corporation, America in the 20th Century (2003), Vol. 12, 273.
I got myself a start by giving myself a start.
— Madame C.J. Walker
In 'Wealthiest Negro Woman's Suburban Mansion: Estate at Irvington, Overlooking Hudson and Containing All the Attractions That A Big Fortune Commands', New York Times Sunday Magazine (4 Nov 1917), 4.
Perseverance is my motto. It laid the Atlantic cable; it gave us the telegraph, telephone, and wireless. It gave to the world an Abraham Lincoln, and to a race freedom. It gave to the negro Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee Institute. It made Frederick Douglass the great orator that he was, and it gave to the race Paul Laurence Dunbar, and to poetry a new song.
— Madame C.J. Walker
In 'Wealthiest Negro Woman's Suburban Mansion: Estate at Irvington, Overlooking Hudson and Containing All the Attractions That A Big Fortune Commands', New York Times Sunday Magazine (4 Nov 1917), 4.
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.
— Madame C.J. Walker
Quoted in A'Lelia Bundles, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker (2000). As cited in The Big Book of Business Quotations (2003), 2.
See also:
- 23 Dec - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Walker's birth.
- On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, by A'Lelia Bundles. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Madam C.J. Walker.