Both women became millionaires in the 1910s, each selling her own brand of hair care products. Both women are to be celebrated, but a lot more people are familiar with the name and story of Madam C. J. Walker, who was known as the first Black millionaire and the first woman to become a self-made millionaire.
Before her time, there were certainly white women who were millionaires, but it was because of inherited wealth, usually from a husband or father. When the name Madam C. J. Walker is getting some praise, there’s a group of people, usually who are from St.
Louis, angrily asking, “But what about Annie Turnbo Malone? ” Annie Turnbo Malone was born Annie Minerva Turnbo in 1869 in Metropolis, Illinois, to parents who were formerly enslaved. She was the 10th of 11 children and was orphaned when she was a very young girl. One thing that always seemed to lift her spirits was styling her sister’s hair, and she was really good at it.
Annie attended public school, and when she went to live with an older sister in Peoria, she started high school but was not able to finish due to frequent illness. One of her favorite subjects was chemistry, and she would put it to use just a few years after having to drop out of school. Annie was also an observant girl and learned the importance of grooming and appearance for Black women. Having a pleasing appearance was an indicator of a woman’s social standing, so she used that knowledge to put her passion for hair styling to good use for herself and for Black women in general.
Annie started serving Black women around the year 1900, not in an effort to be divisive, but because the Black women of her time had practically no one who knew how to care for their hair. There was a major lack of products and tools that Black women needed, the exact opposite was the case for white women, so Annie tapped into a virtually unserved Market. In 1900, a lot of the Black population in the United States had either been enslaved or were first-generation free people, so times were really hard. ; a lot of people didn’t have running water, which is a must for a healthy hair routine, and education about anything was a luxury.
Black women got off of the plantation and went into the workforce, and those who wanted jobs that paid better than a servant’s wage would need to assimilate, making their hair look smooth and presentable, which meant most often making it as smooth and straight as they could possibly get, closer to the texture of a white woman’s hair. Black women in those days were doing some counterproductive and downright dangerous things in order to achieve straight hair. Very commonly, they would use animal fats, soap, and even bacon grease as straightening agents. Then Annie Turnbo came along to share the hair care line that she had developed and started using on her sister’s hair and her own.
Her flagship product was called Hair Grower, and it became a best seller for her. She wasn’t just selling products, though: she was also servicing her clients, treating their hair and scalps one by one, educating Black women on how to care for their hair. They saw results, so they became her customers. After finding success in Illinois, Annie Turnbo moved her operations to St.
Louis, where she continued manufacturing her products, but on a larger scale. She opened the Poro College company there. She would continue to provide hair and scalp treatments for her customers, train other women to provide the same services, and hire sales agents to go door-to-door selling her hair care products. It was there, in St.
Louis, where she met Sarah Breedlove, who came in as a client going bald due to illness, a poor diet, and lack of proper hair and scalp hygiene. After her hair started growing because of Annie’s treatments, she enrolled at Poro College, became a Poro sales agent for Annie, then eventually became Annie’s biggest business rival. Sarah Breedlove was Madam C. J.
Walker. Like Annie, Madam Walker was born to parents who had been enslaved; she came from a smaller family, with only five siblings. She was also born into freedom, not slavery, was orphaned at an early age, and had to live with siblings. Just like Annie, Madam Walker learned at a very young age that Black women who were put together well got more respect, and were treated better in society.
She had a very rough start at life, but she was determined to get to the other side, where she would be treated like those refined Black women. Obviously, just like Annie Malone, Madam C. J. Walker also started her own Black hair products company that earned her a fortune.
Both women built schools to train women how to use their products, employedsales agents that worked not only in the United States but also many countries around the world, including Alaska (which in the 1910s was not yet a part of the United States),, Canada, countries in Central and South America, many island nations in the Caribbean, the Philippines, and even some countries in Africa. Both women bought a lot of real estate. Madam C. J.
Walker even owned a drugstore, a coffee shop, and a theater, which still exists today and is in use as The Madam Walker Legacy Center. Both of these women donated a lot of money to a lot of worthy causes. Also, both ladies married more than once, and they both brought on their husbands to help them run their businesses. This is where some dissimilarities come into play that were critical in their journeys.
Unlike Annie, Walker did not receive a formal education, but this is actually where she got the edge on Annie Turnbo, because she knew how to learn from people who were smarter than her, and how to delegate duties for the things that she did not know how to do. She had a real knack for picking just the right people. Her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, was one of those right people for business, not marriage. He was known to cheat on Madam C.
J. quite openly, even with one of her employees, but when they started in business together, he helped her to get her already successful business to the next level. He was a newspaper advertising salesman, so he knew about advertising and what made a product sell, and he had a lot of connections that he used to help Madam C. J.
expand her business rapidly. Madam C. J. Walker’s start in the hair care business, however, looks shady at best.
This is why Annie Turnbo Malone’s supporters get bent out of shape when they see how much Madam C. J. Walker is celebrated. In 1905, Walker was still working as a Poro agent for Annie Turnbo, and she relocated to Denver, Colorado, to sell the products there.
In the same year, she also started developing her own products that seemed to be very similar to Annie’s. This is how she said she got the formula for her products: “God answered my prayer for one night. I had a dream, and in that dream a big Black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair. ” Some believe she was heavily inspired by Annie’s products, which were right in her house because she was selling them.
However, it must be pointed out that this formula was nothing new; it had been around for more than 100 years, so it didn’t belong to Annie or Walker. They weren’t even the only two people who were selling it, justthe biggest names in the game. A news page from the New York Age in 1915 shows five different companies selling some variation of the same product, each company just putting its own spin on it. Unlike Aaron Eugene Malone, Annie Turnbo’s husband, Charles Joseph Walker was a true partner who brought something unique and very necessary to the business.
Aaron had known Annie in childhood, then reacquainted as adults. He had made a living for himself in education, first as a teacher, then later as a school principal, though at the time Annie reunited with him in adulthood, he was a Bible salesman. The couple had reportedly dated in high school. Then, in 1914, Aaron ran into Annie, rekindled the sparks, and asked her to marry him.
She said yes. Their wedding took place on April 28th, 1914. Interestingly, the coverage of the nuptials described both Annie and Aaron as wealthy, with Aaron dressed up as some businessman and property owner. Annie was described as being at the very top of her field, with a thriving business, the biggest of its kind.
Annie did her best to make the public believe that Aaron was a suitable financial match for her. She was covering for him, propping him up to make it seem as though he came into the relationship with more money than she had, and later that he was the reason for the success of her Poro brand. She would come to regret this decision, but she did it because she was a product of her era. It was the 1910s and 1920s, a time when men prided themselves on financially providing for their wives.
For a woman of her stature to marry down would have been shameful and embarrassing. ; she didn’t want to make him look like a broke fool, because it would have reflected badly on her too. Aaron was lucky he had not only Annie’s help to make him look good, but the local press too. For example, a very short story titled “Malone, Once Teacher, Now a Rich Manufacturer” went on to detail how Annie made a federal income tax payment of over $38,000 for one year, making her one of the largest taxpayers in her city.
Adjusted for inflation, that is almost $700,000 in today’s 2024 money. Yet the title was about Aaron going from being a teacher to a rich manufacturer. He rode her coattails, and she let him until she got tired of it. Actually, until he got tired of it
For years, this couple put on a perfect show.
They were St. Louis’s favorite and richest Black power couple. They donated a lot of money to schools, social causes, and political leaders. Annie’s school building provided more than just a place for her Poro women to learn her hair care system.
Even though Annie and the Black people in her circle had a lot of money, America was still very segregated, so if they wanted to go someplace extravagant, their skin color would prevent them from being admitted into white establishments. Annie saw this problem and fixed it by allowing the doors of Poro College to open for banquets,and a myriad of social functions. She as the founder,and Aaron as president of Poro, were everything that any Black couple could aspire to be. From the outside looking in, anyway.
Truthfully, though, Annie was getting tired of her husband, and the public just didn’t know. But they would find out in February of 1927, when he filed to divorce her. Just her, not her money. He still wanted that.
How did the couple get there? When the times were good, they seemed to be really good. Annie and Aaron were called the leaders of the St. Louis Negro World.
Business was going so well that Poro had 75,000 agents selling its products all over the globe, bringing in $250,000 per year(almost $8 million in today’s money)\. With money rolling in like that, they spent it. The Malons traveled to Europe several times in their 13-year marriage, sometimes for business to check on their operations there, but often for pleasure. Transatlantic travel was not something people could easily do in those days, especially Black people.
Not only could Annie afford to take those trips, but she could afford to do so in style, in first-class accommodations. One sentence from the St. Louis Star-Times illustrates their lifestyle succinctly: “They had toured Europe together and they lived in a style that most persons of any color could never attain. ” She was respected by wealthy white businessmen because she was earning as much money as they were.
Annie was already doing quite well before Aaron came into the picture, earning by our standards $850,000 per year. Aaron did add a little value, but not anywhere near as much as he gave himself credit for. His contribution was a relatively small one, using his former Bible sales stops as places to distribute her products. The Malons were always attending, and even hosting, charity functions.
When they hosted anything, they did it on a grand scale at the school. In 1920, they added a huge reception hall to the school that enabled them to really go all out for their social functions. This was a big deal, especially for the handful of upper-middle-class Black people who had money to donate to charity,and spend on tuxedos,and ball gowns,and luxury cars. They couldn’t simply rent out white-owned banquet halls at that time.
Annie’s ballroom gave them a meeting place for their version of high society. This opening was covered by Black newspapers from all over the nation,and attended by wealthy Black people from several states. In the 3 years before their divorce, they had given away over $90,000 in donations to a number of organizations. Among those recipients of funds from the Malons were Howard University,and what was then called The Negro YMCA.
These two were the picture of a loving, supportive couple. The citizens of St. Louis were surprised to hear about the divorce filing when it came, but Annie most likely wasn’t.! Things at home had not been felicitous for well over a year before Aaron filed to divorce her.
Here’s what the divorce petition revealed: the Malons had been living at Poro College for at least a couple of years before the divorce. There were a number of living quarters there, so that’s not really the issue. The problem was that the couple had been living in separate quarters since February 28th, 1925, almost 2 years before Aaron filed for divorce. Not only had they not been living together, but they had not spoken to each other since May of 1926.
That’s 8 months of silence. ,
Aaron’s charges against Annie included that Mrs. Malone had an ungovernable temper,, that he falsely accused him of infidelity, and has refused to speak to him since May. He charged that on February st28, 1925, he returned home one night to find his clothes in the students’ quarters, with the locks on his family quarters,and the library changed.
He alleged that this action was a desertion, and it is on this ground that the divorce is sought. ,
Annie’s resentment of Aaron ran deep. As a corporation, Poro had 100 shares of stock. Annie did not like that 97 of those 100 were in her husband’s name.
At some point, the corporation dissolved,and a partnership agreement was made with each party having half interest. By that point, he had proven himself to be greedy,and not trustworthy. All of this was going on behind the scenes while the Malons continued to put on happy faces for the public to see. A couple of incidents, though, took place right before their very eyes.
Annie would hold graduation ceremonies for the women who attended Poro College,and mastered various hair care,and styling techniques. After she got married, both she and Aaron would attend,and perform duties at the graduations each year. Aaron would make the commencement speech,and Annie would present the diplomas. When it came time for the June graduation of 1925, though, Annie took a little vacation,and left the city, leaving Aaron to give the speech,and perform her usual task of handing out the diplomas.
One might call her actions a bit passive-aggressive
Another example of her public displays of resentment for her husband was printed in the St. Louis Star. While the Malons were hosting a banquet in their fabulous ballroom, Annie ordered for Aaron’s plate,and chair to to be removed from the head of the table. That was the most public way of saying”You are not the head of this household.
” It was at that moment, some say, that he knew that he needed to file for divorce. As long as she didn’t respect him privately, it was okay, because he could still look like the big man to the public. But public disrespect in front of their rich circle proved to be too much for Aaron’s ego to bear. With the divorce story now public, Annie went on and spoke her peace.
On January 15th, 1927, she made a public statement about her husband’s request for a divorce,and his claims against her. It was printed in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. In her own words: “All I can say is God forgive him, for he knows not what he does.
That college belongs to me to the last penny. And now he claims partnership, saying he made Poro College a National Institution. I gave him the job of manager of Poro College in 1914 when we were married so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed. But he was only technically a manager,and never contributed even an idea to the business.
I transacted business as usual, thought out every move,and directed every step,and let him think it was his doing. I did that to avert just this controversy. But he would continue to antagonize me,and everyone he came in contact with,and the break finally had to come. ”
After Aaron filed for the divorce, the couple didn’t waste any time getting on with the process.
They both hired lawyers. Annie’s attorney was Charles Nagel, a prominent high-class heavyweight whom President Calvin Coolidge had just appointed to head a governmental agricultural commission. Aaron’s lawyer was a man named Edward Forstall, who had a reputation for winning cases that most people said had no merit. He took on big-money cases,and as a rule, part of his fee was 50% of whatever he won for his clients.
He had every reason to take on Aaron as a client. Early in the proceedings, Annie took a loss when the judge presiding over the divorce temporarily removed her as head of the organization,and replaced her with a court-appointed receiver. His duties were to sign all checks,and control her massive daily income for as long as the receivership was in place. He superseded Annie in authority of her own business.
On his first day at Poro, he called all the department heads in for a meeting,in which he informed them that he was putting a stop payment on all outstanding checks. The most important detail that he let them know was that he was the boss now. The St. Paul Echo described him as”a gentleman of the crimson-neck variety,” a colorful way to indicate he was a white man.
He did make a point to let Annie’s staff know that things would be different because he was a white man who was now in charge. Finally, on May 23rd, 1927, the couple was divorced. Oddly enough, the St. Louis Star reported that Annie was awarded her divorce, even though the husband is the one who filed.
It was reported that she paid a $200,000 settlement to him, with his lawyer getting to keep half of that. Even though that $200,000 made him rich, Aaron continued being a grubby little scoundrel. During the process of the divorce, he hired a woman named Maddie Beasley to be his own personal stenographer, promising to pay her $10 a week plus a $2,500 flat fee. He paid her all the $10 weekly payments, but never the $2,500.
Right after he settled with Annie, he was sued four times within one week, from July 18th to the 23rd, all stemming from the side deals that he had related to Annie’s business. Another lawsuit was from a man named William Dawson, who also owned an interest in Annie’s property, but was suing Aaron because his dealings had been with him, looking for $7,500. The outcomes of these lawsuits are unclear, but it sounds like Aaron continued to be Aaron. He got married again,and died in 1953.
His second wife left him years before he died, she just never divorced him
Annie’s troubles were not limited to her husband. Shortly after she married Aaron, another man, Walter Major, sued her with claims very similar to her husband’s: that it was he who did all of the work to put her business on the map,and gave her all of the ideas that put money in her pockets. Annie claimed that this man was nothing more than her chauffeur. This case got even crazier when Annie’s lawyer quit defending her, because she told him that she was only going to pay his entire fee if she won.
According to the St. Louis Dispatch, he told her:”I am my own judge when I need money,” and left her to find another lawyer. After 22 years of litigation, Annie lost the breach of contract lawsuit with this man,and had to pay him $20,000 in 1937, ten years after her divorce had been finalized. Later that same year, Annie got hit with another weird lawsuit, this time from a Black male newspaper editor named Edgar G.
Brown. For some reason, he had been escorted out of Annie’s auditorium during a musical performance, removed by police officers. He was suing for humiliation, claiming that he felt insulted, frightened,and humiliated as a result of being kicked out of her auditorium. He wanted $100,000, about $1.
8 million by today’s standards,, claiming that the police officers were armed with night sticks,and badges,and that intimidated him. The outcome of this case is unclear. There were other lawsuits, but the point is that Annie had a lot of people around her who were not trustworthy, who turned their backs on her. It sounds like there were times when she turned her own back on people who might have been doing right by her.
Nevertheless, she went on to live a good life. But after paying her husband a huge sum of money in the divorce, her Poro Empire was never the same. There were a number of lawsuits, then she moved the company’s headquarters to Chicago. After that came the stock market crash of 1929, then the Great Depression, that negatively affected her business in almost every other business in the country.
Poro didn’t go under, but it never regained its original momentum. Annie lived out the remainder of her life giving to philanthropic causes,and being honored as an innovator in the Black hair care industry. Her story deserves to be told,and her name deserves to be remembered. It’s sad that her legacy is largely a footnote in Madam C.
J. Walker’s story, especially when Annie gave Walker her start in the industry
That being said, one can certainly understand why Madam Walker’s name had a wider reach,and why it is still the one that is more recognized to today. Though she did not have the education that Annie Malone had, Madam C. J.
Walker had an innate ability to deliver good marketing that resonated with the audience she wanted to serve. Often, Annie would use biracial women in her marketing materials, a look that many Black women aspired to back then. But most of the women who purchased those hair growers looked more like Madam Walker,and Annie. So Walker put her own before-and-after pictures on her products, letting Black women know that having a white parent wasn’t the secret ingredient to long, healthy hair.
Madame C. J. Walker died in 1919, so she didn’t get to lead her business for as long as Annie had led hers. Who’s to say if she would have hit some of the same stumbling blocks that Annie did in her long career?.
In her time as the head of the Madam C. J. Walker company, though, her business was not plagued with lawsuits in the way that Annie’s was. She hired people who she trusted,and who trusted her,and who wanted her to succeed.
Annie just didn’t have that going for her. Even though Madam C. J. Walker goes down in history as the first Black self-made millionaire, Annie got their too.
Both women accomplished that feat in the 1910s, before anti-lynching laws or the civil rights movement or affirmative action. These two women, born to parents who had been slaves, became a couple of the richest people in the world. That should be celebrated. It’s recorded in history that Madam C.
J. Walker was the first one to become a millionaire, though some people say that’s not true, that Annie got there first. But let’s say that the history is the truth. If the Guinness Book of World Records got it right,and Madam Walker was a millionaire first, Annie was right on her heels, making hundreds of thousands of dollars at that time.
If the truth is vice versa, still both women accomplished something major. There is room for all of us to be celebrated. One of the points of this story is obviously that both Madam C. J.
Walker,and Annie Turnbo Malone deserve recognition. It should be”and,” not”or,” when it comes to them. Madame Walker is celebrated worldwide,and Annie’s Legacy is revered in St. Louis, where she made her fortune.
She died in 1957 after suffering a stroke. The Annie Malone Children and Family Services Agency still thrives today, carrying out its mission to improve the quality of life for children, something that was very near and dear to Mrs. Malone’s heart. St.
Louis also holds an annual Annie Malone May Day Parade in their downtown. Her Legacy also lives on through the sorority Zeta Phi Beta, into which she was inducted as an honorary member in 1926
The other, maybe not-so-obvious, point of this story is to hopefully inspire someone. The start of a new year is often a time when people set goals,and resolutions for themselves. The rags-to-riches stories of two Black women who were born to parents who were slaves inspire the idea that you can do anything.
Madame C. J. didn’t start her company until she was 41 years old. Annie Malone was just slightly younger, around 37, when she started hers.
Today, we say that’s kind of old to get something started. But there is a takeaway: no matter who you are, if you want to do something, do it. There’s still time, because you’re still breathing. Go do the thing, whatever the thing is.
Start that business, break that addiction, go back to school,and get that degree, lose that weight, apply for that promotion, leave that abusive relationship. Start that YouTube channel. Somebody wants to hear what you have to say. We all have a unique opportunity simply because we are here,and breathing, so don’t waste it
Madame C.
J. Walker died at the age of 51. She was just getting started in business. One can only imagine what she would have accomplished if she had lived a little bit longer.
That being said, take care of your health too. That is something that Walker did not do, and that’s where you and I have an advantage: we’re still breathing. Life is hard. It’s hard being poor,and not having enough of what you need.
It’s also hard working your butt off, taking a risk, doing something that’s fulfilling,and seeing it pay off for you,and your loved ones. Which hard are you going to choose this year? It was hard for Annie Malone,and Madam Walker, having people tell them you can’t do this because you’re Black, you can’t do that because you’re a woman. A lot of the opposition that they faced was from Black people, especially Black men.
But look at what they did in 1910. It’s 2024,and you don’t have those obstacles in your way. We tend to do a good job at paying our bills,and existing. That’s not living.
This year, take the dance class, take the vacation, take the break that you need to regroup,and get back at it. But live, don’t exist. Madame C. J.
Walker said:”I had to make my own living and my own opportunity,. But I made it,. Don’t sit down,and wait for the opportunities to come,. Get up,and make them.
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