Born on a Louisiana plantation two years after the Civil War, Sarah Breedlove became Madam C.J. Walker, documented as America’s first self-made female millionaire. This episode uncovers the mechanics of how an orphaned domestic servant built a cosmetics empire.

We trace her scalp-ailment origins in the St. Louis laundry trade, her rebrand and the Walker system, her vertically integrated Indianapolis headquarters, her army of 20,000 hair culturists, and her strategic philanthropy and civil rights activism.

• Her impoverished, orphaned early life in the South
• Developing hair products after her own severe hair loss
• Rebranding as Madam C.J. Walker and the Walker system
• Building 20,000 agents and vertical integration in Indianapolis
• Funding the NAACP anti-lynching campaign and building Villa Lewaro