American Biography

People who effectively used this new form of promotion often succeeded in business. One such person was an African-American woman named Sarah Breedlove, better known as Madame C.J. Walker. Her hair tonic became popular among African-American women around the turn of the century and she became the first African-American female millionaire. Her success was an important symbol, showing the possibility of success and hope for change even though many African-Americans were still being denied basic rights.

Madame C.J. Walker was one of the wealthiest African-Americans of her time. She used her wealth to purchase this house along the Hudson River, at a time when many African-Americans were struggling against economic, social and political discrimination.

This is an advertisement for one of Madame C.J. Walker’s products. Many of her beauty products for African-American women were actually designed to bleach and straighten hair or lighten skin complexions, in other words, to make an African-American woman look more like the European-American ideal of beauty. So, although the success of these products led to Walker’s personal fortune, they also reflected the racism of the time.

Walker donated a lot of her money to the African-American community. She was a strong supporter of Booker T. Washington, pictured here, and his Tuskegee Institute. She also supported more radical figures like Marcus Garvey.

While Walker used the emerging advertising industry to earn a great fortune, no single person made such good use of the growing power of advertising as P.T. Barnum. Barnum first began advertising his sideshow tours of “illustrious Americans” and his American Museum in New York City in the mid 1800s. Later, he created the Barnum Circus. His circus shows were some of the first products to use color posters, like this one, for advertisements. They changed the way America looked at entertainment.