“Woman’s Duty to Woman”: Madam C. J. Walker, the Walker Agents, and the Empowerment of Black Women

In 1963, August Meier, influential scholar of the African American experience, stated that despite having “no direct evidence on what the [black] masses were thinking” in the turn-of-the-century United States, much can be gleaned from the preserved sermons of leading clergymen and various editorials and advertisements found in popular newspapers.  These sources illuminate a number of themes that seemed to reverberate through such public dialogue: concepts of self-help, racial solidarity and uplift, economic growth, and the extension of full political citizenship. 

Building upon Meier’s work, as well as the growing body of scholarship that applies a gendered lens to studies of the intersection of race and labor by historians Tera Hunter, Tiffany Gill, and several others, this paper examines the political and economic impression beauty industry mogul Madam C. J. Walker made upon the everyday lives of black working women in the years surrounding World War I.  My research on this subject is two-fold.  First, I seek to demonstrate how Madam Walker's company empowered African American women, providing a lucrative alternative to the physical toil of domestic labor and agricultural work.  Secondly, financial independence facilitated the cultivation of a strong political voice among these professional women with Madam Walker herself occupying a prominent position.

Utilizing an innovative framework and interdisciplinary methodology helps to widen our understanding of this historical narrative.  Madam Walker and her company effectively serve as a vehicle for approaching her labor force, allowing us access to a subaltern population whose voices are so often silenced by Jim Crow segregation and racial hostility.