«Daisy Century as Madame C.J. Walker (Tuesday, Sept 17 @ Little Red Schoolhouse)

Tuesday, Sept 17

6:30 PM

Dr. Daisy Century will perform her one-woman living-history show as hair-care product and cosmetics creator and business woman Madame C.J. Walker.

Born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana, she was the first member of her family to be born free to parents who had been slaves. Malaria took both her parents leaving Sarah and her sister Louvenia to fend for themselves. At 14 she married a man named Moses McWilliams. At age nineteen she was widowed and expecting a baby girl. She moved to St. Louis to join her brothers.

When her hair started falling out she began mixing several ingredients together to put on her hair to make it grow again. After about two months it started to work. She started to sell the hair growing products to her neighbors and friends and even went door to door to pitch her product. As time went on women began to buy the product and word of mouth spread the news. She had to hire women to help her. Sarah moved to Denver to get a bigger population and newer clientele base.

In Denver, Sarah reconnected with an old friend, Charles Joseph Walker, everyone called him C.J. They got married and instead of calling herself Mrs. Charles Joseph Walker she called herself Madam C.J. Walker, Madam just sounded very proper and important. The name stuck and became part of her product marketing. Sarah expanded her business my building a manufacturing plant and started accepting mail orders and by 1917 Sarah had one of the largest business in the United States owned by an African American. Her estimated worth at the time was a million dollars, placing her as one of the first Black female to achieve this status.

Of course there's much more to Madame C.J. Walker's life than we can present in a couple paragraphs so come on out and here it all!

Free and open to the public. Seating is limited, please pre-register.

Special thank you to the Little Red Schoolhouse for providing our location at 12 Harmony Road, Mickleton, NJ.

This program is made possible in part by funding from the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission at Rowan College of South Jersey, a partner of the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.