The Black Rose
Books / Hardcover
Books › Fiction › Historical › General
ISBN: 0345439600 / Publisher: One World/Ballantine, June 2000
A fictional biography chronicles the story of Madame C.J. Walker, who rose from the poverty of her former slave parents to found a marketing empire that made her America's first Black female millionaire
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Born to former slaves on a Louisiana plantation in 1867, Madam C. J. Walker rose from poverty and indignity to become America's first black female millionaire, the head of a hugely successful company, and a leading philanthropist in African American causes."I got my start by giving myself a start," Madam C. J. was fond of saying as she recounted her transformation from the uneducated laundress Sarah Breedlove to a woman of wealth, culture, and celebrity. Madam C. J. was nearing forty and married to a maverick Denver newspaperman when the wonder-working hair care method she discovered changed her life. Seemingly overnight, she built a marketing empire that enlisted more than twenty thousand bright young African American women to demonstrate and sell her products door-to-door.A dynamic, brilliantly creative businesswoman, Madam C. J. also became a tireless activist in the fight against racial oppression and a key figure in the antilynching movement. A stalwart "race woman," she worked with black leaders like Booker T. Washington, and her legacy inspired poets like Langston Hughes.
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