African American Women Making a Difference

Madam C.J Walker was born on December 23, 1867, in Louisiana. Her mom Minerva Breedlove died in the year 1874 and her dad Owen died the following year. The causes of her parents' deaths are still unknown. She was 6 years old when her mom died and 7 years old when she became an orphan. She lived with her sister, Louvinia, and brother-in-law. They moved to Mississippi in 1877. Well, there Walker was forced to pick cotton. Walker married Moses McWilliams at age 14. After they got married they had a beautiful daughter she was named A'Lelia. A'Lelia was born on June 6, 1885. Moses died in 1887 when A'Lelia was 3 years old. After Moses died A'Lelia and Madam Walker moved to St. Louis, Missouri. In Missouri Walker found a job as a cleaner. She got paid $1.50 a day. This was barely enough money to send A'Lelia to school. While in St. Louis Madam Walker met her soon to be second husband Charles Walker. In the 1890s, Madam Walker developed a rare scalp condition that made her lose almost all of her hair. After this, she decided she was going to experiment with home remedies and store-bought remedies to try to improve her hair condition. In 1905, Walker was hired as a commission saleswoman by Annie Turnbo Malone. If you don't know who Annie Turnbo Malone is she was also a famous African American inventor. Walker moved to Denver, Colorado in 1907, where she invented a hair treatment for African-Americans. Walker and Charles traveled the country together selling her products and showing how they worked. The next year Walker opened a beauty school and a factory. Just two years later after her major investments, the company was booming. Walker and her husband Charles broke up in 1912. Walker moved to Harlem in 1916. Harlem was an important African-American neighborhood. It was home to musicians, writers, and artists, in New York City. On May 25, 1919, at age 51 Walker died from kidney failure and complications of hypertension. She died in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York on an estate that she had built for herself. After Walker died A'Lelia Walker was left with ⅓ of her mother's estate. During 1998 the United States Postal Service decided to make a stamp of Madame Walker. This was part of their "Black Heritage" series.

Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas. When Bessie was little her favorite thing was to listen to stories about the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers were famous for their knowledge of building and flying some of the worlds first airplanes. The annoying truth, in Bessie's time and today, was men thought that women should not be pilots. But even worse than a female pilot was an African American female pilot. After Bessie completed high school, she went to Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University, now known as the Langston University, for one year. Then in 1915 she went to Chicago, Illinois. Becoming a pilot was really hard for Bessie. Bessie was not allowed to attend American aviation school, because she was an African American woman. Bessie was told to go to the international aviation school in France. Bessie spent her life savings to learn how to speak French. She took a class at the Berlitz school in Chicago. Bessie left for France on November 20, 1920. A famous quote from Bessie "I knew we had no aviators, neither men nor women, and I knew the race needed to be represented along this most important line, so I thought it my duty to risk my life to learn aviation and to encourage flying among men and women of our race, who are so far behind the white race in this modern study," In France it took Bessie seven months to learn how to fly. After she did Bessie was given an international pilot's license. In 1921 the Federation Aeronautique International gave this to Bessie. When Bessie returned to the United States she became known for her impressive stunts and was named "Queen Bess". After this name was given to her she continued to face the restrictions the United States kept showing her African American family. In response to the racism she was shown, she said: "The air is the only place free from prejudices." Bessie Coleman died April 30, 1926, in  Jacksonville, Florida. Bessie was 34 when she passed away. Bessie died because her plane was not working properly. She had three unexpected stops on the way to the show and on the final stretch Bessie was not wearing a seat belt. When the plane took an unexpected drop and spiraled toward the ground Bessie fell out of the plane and died upon impact. Her passenger was not able to take control of the plane and died upon impact as well. The plane exploded and that was the end of Bessie Coleman. This year on Bessie's birthday, Google decided to put a sketch of her  on their banner.

          These African American women made differences in so many lives but they are not as different as it might seem. They were both African American women which as hard enough as it is. But on top of that these girls both had hard childhoods. Madam C.J Walker's parents died and her first husband died and she had a three-year-old child. Bessie Coleman had to face being told over and over that she could not do what she loved it was a white man's job. They also both died at young ages 51 and 34. Despite all of these things these women made a life for themselves and made a difference to others.



Credits:
Madam C.J Walker photo
Newsela Madam C.J Walker
Walker Wikipedia (when Walker's daughter was born and her first husband died and this link too)
Newsela Bessie Coleman
Bessie Coleman's death
Bessie Coleman photo