Madam Walker Became Self-Made Millionaire

The first woman recorded by Guinness World Records as a self-made millionaire in America was entrepreneur Sarah Breedlove, better known as Madam C. J. Walker. Born near Delta, Louisiana, in 1867, she was the first child in her family born free, while her parents and older siblings had been enslaved on a plantation. During the early 1900s, Walker built a national business by developing and marketing cosmetics and hair-care products for Black women while training thousands of women as sales agents. Guinness estimates that her net worth exceeded $1 million when she died in 1919.

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