South Hempstead, NY News & Events

Lecture: Madame Walker: The First African-American Woman Millionaire with Ronald J. Brown

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s attracted African-American from the Deep South, across the United States, the Caribbean Islands, and Latin America. Among the migrants to Harlem, the African-American Mecca, was Madame CJ Walker. Born in Louisiana in 1867, she migrated to the Midwest, where she pioneered her own brand of skin-lightening and hair-straightening products for Black people. By 1913, she was already a successful businesswoman and moved her operation to Harlem, and was soon a millionaire with a home in Harlem and a spacious mansion along the Hudson River. She supported African-American philanthropic organizations, universities, and artists. However, her fame was tarnished with the rise of the "Black is Beautiful" movement, where skin lightening and hair straightening were taboo. Nonetheless, she remains one of the business success stories of the Harlem Renaissance.