In the field of black hair care, Madame C. J. Walker employed groundbreaking entrepreneurial, organizational, and marketing strategies to revolutionize the industry. At her death in 1919 Walker had amassed a fortune, making her the first African-American female millionaire.

Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 in Delta, Louisiana, Walker moved to St. Louis twenty years later in search of better social and economic opportunities. Widowed, with a two-year-old daughter, she struggled financially but was determined not to spend her entire life as a domestic. After moving to Denver in 1905 Walker's hair began to fall out and she experimented with several formulas until she stopped her hair loss. This encouraged her to develop and market her own product, the "Walker hair-grower," to black women throughout the Denver area. "My hair was coming in faster that it had ever fallen out. I tried it on...