Sharecroppers. Poverty was a way of life for them. And working hard from sunrise to sunset from an early age was part of her life. She was orphaned very early, around the age of six, moved to vicksburg, mississippi with a sister. She then moved again to st. Louis to work with her brothers who were barbers. There is no lockstep for what African American womens lives were during the turn of the century. Many worked on farms. Many were sharecroppers. Most were not able to get education and could not have the job of their dreams because of discrimination and segregation laws. These were laws, as opposed to just biases and feelings. These were hard, codified laws that prohibited women from, in general, living and working where they wanted to, but particularly African American women. She went to pittsburgh and decided it was not a Strong Enough base for her. She came to indianapolis, the crossroads of america. At the time, this was the crossroads for railroad distribution into the south, into the east, into the midwest, and the far west. She thought this was a great location to start and grow her business, and it had a decent sized population of African Americans. The growth for a business is because she empowered not just herself but her employees and agents. She sold her wares by way of madame c. J. Walker agents and she also had beauty culturists. She started beauty schools and trained her agents to go out and sell not just for her but for themselves. Now, women who were cooks, maids, and other types of menial positions, were able to get dressed and sell one to another. And she went all around the country to create this network of women who were selling her products. Madame walker was about uplifting and encouraging her race as well as her employees and agents. Here, you see original documents of a diploma in recognition from a college for teaching her method of beauty culture. This is not given to one person in particular, this is a stock one that was in her collection. But this is what it would look like. The women who were part of her agents, she had conventions for them so they could come together. They could bond and continue to learn. But to make sure they knew they were special too, she created these very pretty agents, complete with member, her photograph. It was about her and her branding of herself and her business. There is a myth we can dispel that now that she invented the hot comb. She did not. But her agents used these hot combs. These are circa 1915 and courtesy of her greatgreat granddaughter. With that, what she did use, these are examples of her work and her products from the 1920s. This is what they look like. This was the original drawing for her wonderful hair grower. Through her earnings, she became a philanthropist as well as an activist, and they were tied hand in hand. She was very generous with her employees, friends, and agents. She also became active in civil rights of the day. She eventually left indianapolis because she felt the treatment here was oppressive, even though she had so much going for her, she owned her own property, owned her own house, owned her own factory, but it was still in the throes of jim crow segregation and it was rather punitive. She thought people in new york where more inviting and interested, so she moved to harlem. This is one of my favorite items in the collection that we have in the library as well as in the exhibit. It is a letter to the president of the United States and congress, and it went to president woodrow wilson. It is about the silent protest parade that happened along fifth avenue where you can see in the background on the bottom, women are dressed in white, the children marched with them in front dressed in white. This was a planned march to talk about an protest against all the lynchings. People being lynched by mobs without trial. It is signed by madame c. J. Walker. And to date, there is still no law that is an antilynching law in america. History is often based on the stories that people tell. And the facts and documents and papers that are culminated to get to that point. But what makes history so poignant is who tells the story. And we often hear peoples stories by people who are not them. It is important to hear African American women stories, women stories, told by African American women, and African American men. To elevate an iconic person like madame walker from soundbite history is important because her legacy not only touches all women and it is American History as well as black history, it reframes her life as a woman. She was more than just a pretty face, she was more than somebodys wife. She was the entrepreneur. She was the president. She was the chairman. She was the philanthropist. She was the activist. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to indiana. ,o watch more from indianapolis visit cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan three. In 1921, soviet citizens faced starvations in one of the worst famines in history, setting aside political differences, the new soviet government asked herbert hoovers American Relief administration for help. Douglas smithn gives an illustrated talk about the story based on his story the russian job, the forgotten the story of how america saved the soviet union from ruin. Good evening and welcome to Hillwood Estate Museum and gardens. I know many of you know already but in case we havent met, i am the executive director here. I want to thank you for joining us tonight as we welcome back
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