Madam C.J. Walker

1867 – 1919

Born Sarah Breedlove to formerly enslaved parents in Louisiana, Madam C.J. Walker built a hair care and beauty products empire that made her the first female self-made millionaire in the United States. She relocated her company's headquarters to Indianapolis in 1910, training a national sales force of Black women agents and using her fortune to fund civil rights causes, scholarships, and Black cultural institutions before her death in 1919.