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Madam C.J. Walker, America’s First Female Self-made Millionaire, In Her Ford With Her Friends In 1911
Madam C.J. Walker, the first female self-made millionaire in America, in her Ford with some of her friends in 1911.
C.J. Walker’s Model T was sold by the Ford Motor Company from 1908 to 1927.
The $850 Model T was the earliest effort to make a car that most people could actually buy.
Model T was named the world’s most influential car of the twentieth century in an international poll.
It beats the Mini, Citroën DS, Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911 to the title.
Madam C. J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, political and social activist.
She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World records.
Walker was born to enslaved parents, and at the age of seven, she became orphaned. Married at 14 and widowed at 20, Sarah moved to St. Louis with her daughter where she worked as a washerwoman, earning $1.50 per day.
In 1906, she began her million-dollar hair enterprise. She became one of the wealthiest self-made women in the U.S. making her fortune by developing and selling a line of beauty and hair products, specifically for Black women.
A rare and colorized picture of self-made millionaire Madam C. J. Walker behind the wheels of her Ford Model T with some of her friends taken in 1911 can be found below.
Walker’s Model T, sold by the Ford Motor Company from 1908 to 1927, was the earliest effort to make a car that most people could actually buy.
The then $850 Ford Model T was named the world’s most influential car of the twentieth century in an international poll, beating Mini, Citroën DS, Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911 to the title.
Below are some of her quotes that will inspire you to take action in your own life.
“I want the great masses of my people to take a greater pride in their personal appearance and to give their hair proper attention.”
“Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”
“People are ugly not in their face but in their thoughts. So never get impressed by someone’s appearance, rather dig deep down into their thoughts to reveal the real person inside out.”
“My object in life is not simply to make money for myself.”
“I love to use a part of what I make to help others.”
“I am not ashamed of my humble beginning.”
“I have built my own factory on my own ground, 38 by 208 feet. I employ in that factory seven people, including a book-keeper, a stenographer, a cook and a housegirl.”
