Duke Ellington

published As The American Journalist A'Lelia Bundles, your first article about your great-great-grandmother, Madame Cj Walker in 1982, it was in the "lost Women " column of Ms. magazine.

That was quite a comedown for Mrs. Walker , founded a hair care company that its the Land described in The First self-made female millionaire -"The World 's richest colored woman, the mainly manufacturer and philanthropist of their race", as a newspaper, as she died in 1919.

On This Day , Madam Cj Walker products can be purchased in stores - an unlikely legacy for A Woman who toiled in poverty for decades to come and whose parents were enslaved.

But it was "for many years, Mrs. Walker is only a small footnote in history. As A Woman , hair care products, she was really handed over something trivial," says Ms Bundles, which published The First comprehensive biography, written by Mrs Walker , "On her Own ground" in the year 2001.

Now, however, Ms Walker , "a moment", when Ms Bundles it in a recent blog Post .

their story can be found in about 200 books, they have been shown in several current exhibitions of the Museum, including the Simthsonian in Washington Dc , and New York named a street in her honor Last Year . In March, Netflix's Self-made, a four-part series with the stars Octavia Spencer about her Life and business, inspiring other publicity blitz and the re-issue of Ms Bundles' biography of released.

Meanwhile, your brand has been revived by the Unilever subsidiary, sundial brands, well-known for its SheaMoisture hair products, which bought the rights in 2013. The Foundation began that has a sundial founder Richelieu Dennis, her 34-room New York mansion, Villa Lewaro, bought with plans to put it in a think-tank for black Women entrepreneurs.

"So much of your story is, unfortunately, still timely," says Elle Johnson, One of the authors of the Netflix series, The Buzz . "When I reached you a look into your Life and what, I can't help but be amazed. "

Born in Louisiana, in 1867, as Sarah Breedlove, Mrs. Walker was orphaned at the Age Of seven and a widowed mother of 20. You fight with hair loss - a widespread problem at The Time due to infrequent wash - inspired her to start her business, Madam Cj Walker Manufacturing Co in 1906, sold a "treatment", on the scalp-massage, and a special ointment.

By 1916, it employs More Than 10,000 agents and a network of schools, which trained Women to enter the hair Industry - One of The Few opportunities outside of domestic work, black Women could be money in This Time

"I had little or no opportunity when I started in Life . I had My Own living and My Own opportunity," she told later, after Ms Bundles' biography. "But I've done it. That's why I don't want to say to every Negro woman, sit down and wait until the opportunities come, but you have to Get Up and do it!"

Mrs Walker - who renamed himself after the marriage with Her Third husband, with the wife added that for branding purposes - was part of a wave of black entrepreneurs in the decades after the abolition of slavery, to the needs of The Black population is largely ignored by white business.

included other African-American Women with the big hair care companies, such as Annie Turnbo Malone, whose products Mrs Walker sold before with the development of their own formula. Their Rivalry - the Ms-Bundles says, is exaggerated to achieve dramatic effect - is a Central Point of the new Netflix series.

But Mrs Walker , whose Life also inspired a Duke Ellington Opera - Remains The Best known. This is partially accomplished proof of your marketing, including your willingness to stamp their products with their own Image - Standard Fare in the Age Of social factors, but a brave step, if the white standards of beauty ruled The Day .

"There are so many things that we think were, we have you invented or came from the Harvard Business School, and this is what this woman is doing, it was 100 years Ago ," says Nicole Jefferson Asher, One of the authors of the Netflix show. "It was a sense of their own innate business. "

A sought-after speaker, Mrs Walker also spoke about political issues such as lynching and described The Mission of your company in terms of Women empowerment. Their obituaries recognized for your philanthropy as well as their wealth.

"we talk a lot Today about social entrepreneurship and companies with a double Bottom Line or triple Bottom Line , [the maximisation of the social and environmental good as profits]," says Tyrone Freeman , a professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University, whose book about Mrs Walker 's non-profit work is due This Fall . "I see, Walker , to do this 100 years Ago . "

Ms Asher says Mrs Walker ' s merits, they associated their "national hero" for generations of black Women - Even if often erroneously, with the invention of the Hot Comb , a hair straightener.

But although she is the rags-to-riches story seems to be made for the cinema, until recently, it was difficult to get Hollywood to buy in stories focused on the "black stars", Ms Asher said, Now, at a Time when America breeds allocated to economic wider-and gender-specific differences are in the foreground, and The Power wielded by the country, the business elite, the love by your company and your people under control, The Questions resonate with your story.

"This is A Story about Female Entrepreneurship and the American Dream , and specifically The Black American Dream ," she says. "The more we learn about the history, about This Time will help us, by The Time , The Time in which we are currently fighting in right now. "

But Mrs Walker 's story is compelling in her own right, she adds. "The example that the resilience and determination and ambition really should be an inspiration for All of us. "

Source of news: bbc.com