Archive for April, 2010
Madam C.J. Walker, 1867-1919: Developed Hair-Care Products for Black Women
Thursday, April 1st, 2010Today the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA tells about Madam C. J.Walker. She was a businesswoman, the first female African American to become very rich.
In the early nineteen hundreds, life for most African-Americans was very difficult. Mobs of white people attacked and killed black people. It was legal to separate groups of people by race. Women, both black and white, did not have the same rights as men.
Black women worked very long hours for little wages. They worked mostly as servants or farm workers. Or they washed clothes. Madam C. J. Walker worked as a washerwoman for twenty years. She then started her own business of developing and selling hair-care products for black women.
Madam Walker, however, did more than build a successful business. Her products helped women have a better sense of their own beauty. Her business also gave work to many black women. And, she helped other people, especially black artists and civil rights supporters. She said: “My object in life is not simply to make money for myself or to spend it on myself. I love to use a part of what I make in trying to help others. ” Continue reading here
Listen to the story here
Source: VOA News
