The Business of Beauty: Learning from Madam C.J. Walker, America's First African American Self-made Busineswoman

Rarely do all the above mentioned words define a person. But then, rare, is exactly the word to describe Sarah Breedlove Walker, also know as Madame C.J. Walker. Below is a snapshot of her remarkable life, as well as several examples of how we can learn from her both as a committed community contributor and an extraordinary woman of confidence and business sense. She is exactly the kind of inspiration we want to introduce kids to through the study of both Women's History and Black History.

Here are a few facts to introduce you to this American hero:

She was born Sarah Breedlove in 1864, the first free child born in her family.

As a child she worked as a cook and laundress to help her sharecropping family survive.

She was orphaned at the age of 7.

By the age of 20 was married, had her first child and was widowed.

Literally dreamed of creating a hair care product specifically for African-American women as a result of her own need. Followed that dream by creating, marketing, and selling her own product, her own way.

In 1911 she legally incorporated her company and designed and built a huge headquarters complete with a movie theater for African American's to use.

Publicly challenged leader Booker T. Washington to allow room for African American women to prosper in business just as he advocated for men.

Organized the first union for her employees and hold the first union convention in Philidelphia.

Invested heavily in the education of her children and the betterment of her community.

Became an avid civil right's and women's rights advocate.

She died in 1919 at the age of 51.

Rare and remarkable!

I wanted to use her story to teach some basic elements of starting a business, but I also wanted kids to learn some of her remarkable biography. Because of this I split the lesson into 2 units that covered a week. The First unit was Biography and we took 2 days on this, the second unit was business and we spent 3 days there. Divide and use the pieces in a way that is usable for you and your learning situation.

Unit #1: Biography

Day One: I began by reading the book Vision of Beauty by Kathryn Lasky. We read the beginning to the dream, stopping before reading the Denver, Colorado section (the book is divided into chapter like sections titled by location and dates). As I read out loud, I paused often to point out important and interesting things about her life and I let the kids share thoughts and questions as well. If you are reading this with a whole classroom, you might want to remind kids before you begin to just share thoughts and questions about her life and save other stories for later.

After we read and talked, I had my kids fill out a Character Sketch page to record some of what they learned about her life. You can make a character sketch page two ways.

1. Copy a picture of the character you are studying in the middle of a piece of paper, leaving lots of room around all the edges for students to record their thoughts.

2. You can use a generic outline of a person and let the kids "make" the character by drawing features and clothing appropriate to who you are studying and then add their thoughts.

Either way, once you have the sketch ready, the idea is to use the parts of the body as a guide to record your information. Since hair was really important to Sarah, I started there as my example. Draw a line pointing to hair and write on the line "broken hair from hard work and no good products" to her head draw a line and write "dreamed of finding a product to fix her hair." Hands could be the jobs she did, eyes could be the places or famous people she saw. I really like to use this to access how much the kids are getting from the reading and discussion so I don't add a lot of specific requirements about what they need to write. However, I do circulate and ask lots of questions if I'm noticing they don't seem to have facts specific to the character.

If you are doing this in a classroom, I would suggest splitting the kids into pairs or groups with a larger sized piece of paper. Provide each group with a bag full of body section cards. Each member pulls a card and then is in charge of labeling that part. Model how to take turns writing and how to help each other think. I like to give each group a copy of the book to use for reference.

Day Two: I read the second half of the book Vision of Beauty by Kathryn Lasky. Then we worked together to create a Five Fast Facts page. I usually make mine by tracing my own hand, and then writing in the title at the top. In a classroom, I would split the kids into pairs to help each other think, but require each to fill out their own fact page. The idea is to use the story to help your think about the five most important details of her life. Write one detail on each of the five fingers and then draw an illustration that represents the character or what you learned about them in the middle of the palm.

Day One: I stuck with the book, Vision of Beauty ,because it is written in a way a younger students could understand, but the other books mentioned below are excellent for older kids or for independent work. This time we didn't read through the book, we used it to see if we could find the STEPS TO BUILDING A BUSINESS. I really helped guide the thinking here, we started on the page about the dream and I helped them see that every business starts with an idea or a dream. We wrote that on the first step. From there we walked through each page looking at the illustrations, reading key words and thinking about the sequence in which the business was built. If kids are coming up with great ideas that aren't in order, you can write the ideas down and tell kids to be on the look out for where they fit in the process of building a business. Together we filled in the stair graphic, I included our steps in the table so you can have them handy. In a classroom setting you could let older kids work in groups to try to come up with all the steps and then meet back together to talk through them or you could ask them to record on a sheet of their own that matches the one you are using. At any rate, day one is about thinking through how to plan for success by knowing and following the steps to building a business.

Day Two:

We began by checking to make sure our steps were accurate. I gave students a copy of the steps typed out with space in between them. Their job was to work together, in a classroom setting I would do partners, to see if they could find a specific example from Sarah's story to match each of the steps. They could either write or draw to record their answers. Once we had applied the specific steps to her specific story. We watched the video below to learn a bit more about her. I just did the first part, but all the parts are good. They have lots of real photos are a narrated by her real life, great granddaughter! Once we watched the video, the kids designed a business award for Sarah. They could create the award any way they wanted, they only needed to write exactly why, what specific part of her business story, they thought most deserved an award, what was it about her business they found most inspiring. I would have kids do this one their own and let each share with the class when you are done.

Day 3:

This day was about trying out our own business skills. This really could be a spring board for a unit all it's own. I didn't have time for that so we did one day, but see the possibility and use it for whatever would be meaningful for your kids.

We again referred to our Steps for Building a Successful Business chart. We did this all together, in a classroom I would assign groups and then divide the group into pairs responsible for one step of the process. Be sure to give specific instructions so each pair knows exactly what to do.

I gave my girls this problem: My boots are really stinky in the winter, I need something that will help me wear them and not stink. I then let them work through the steps to building a business, modeled after Sarah's story. They worked a while mixing different things they thought might smell good, but would also be safe in a boot. Once they had a product they tried it out, thought about the best points-the message they wanted to send and then designed an advertisement. Next, they practiced selling it and thought about how they would teach others to make and sell it. In a group setting, each pair works on one step and they come back together to go over their final project. Then each group presents to the class. If you don't have space to mix you could give the kids a product and a card explaining the idea, research and trial parts of the process and let them go from there. The idea is to let kids experience the steps to building a successful business and to experience some of why Sarah's story is remarkable!

We looked over all the parts we had made and then I simply asked, "What did you learn about Madame C.J. Walker?" listen to the answers and then keep asking questions like "How does she inspire you?" "What do you think made her business so successful?" "What are some first things she did as a women or as an African-American businesswoman?" Talk together and review her remarkable life.

Then ask each child to do a "Fold it Up"paper explaining why Madame C.J. Walker belongs in the Business, Women's, and African-American Hall of Fame. To make a "fold it up" paper, simply fold a piece of paper into thirds. Title it with her name and then title each column, made when you folded the paper, with one of the categories. Then students fill in the category with bullet statements and pictures that describe her accomplishments or the reasons they think she should be remembered in each of the categories. These are the products I would display for future reference and inspiration!