In the celebration of
Black History Month and me opening my new business (www.etsy.com/shop/EbonysKitchenSpa
) , I want to dedicate this post to some women who came before me and decided
to do it for themselves.
Annie Turnbo Malone:
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Source: blackpast.org |
Whenever people think of
black women entrepreneurs in history, the go to person is Madam C.J. Walker,
who many believed single handedly started the black hair industry. What
if I told you there was someone who came before her? Four years before Madam C.J Walker, Malone
launched her hair care business made for African-American women. During the early part of the 20th
century, Annie ran hair care products and cosmetics like a boss. Decades before Carol’s Daughters, Malone had
the hair product game on lock.
Annie Malone is the
definition of overcoming. Inspite of
being a sickly child and not completing high school, she had the entrepreneur
spirit. It was during this time that
black women were getting away from cornrows because of its connection to slavery. They were turning to soaps, bacon grease,
heavy oil, butter and other methods to straighten their hair. In some cases, these methods were actually
damaging to the hair. Working with her
aunt who was an herbal doctor, she developed a solution to straighten hair
safely or as safely as you could get in the early 1900s.
Along with her product The Great Wonderful Hair Grower, she opened
a beauty school in St. Louis that trained other women to be hair stylists and
employed women to sell her products door-to-door. At some point Madam C.J. Walker worked for
Annie and then decided to do her own thing.
I’m not saying there was tension between these two ladies but I can only
imagine the side eyes that were probably exchanged between them.
For more information on
this incredible woman, go to www.anniemalone.com.
Sarah E. Goode:
IKEA might be the go-to
place for convenient furniture, but Sarah E. Goode was making furniture for
small spaces centuries before the Swedish.
Sarah was the first African-American to receive a U.S patent. Goode was born into slavery and moved to
Chicago, IL after the Civil War.
With her husband,
Archibald Goode, a carpenter, she owned a furniture store. Many of her customers were working class
black people living in small, cramped apartments. To help with their situation, Sarah invented a
“folding bed” that could be put up when not in use and also be used for
storage. Not much is known about Sarah
outside of her invention. Nonetheless,
she is worthy of a mention for an accomplishment that has had an effect on how
furniture is made today.
Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley:
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Source: blackpast.org |
First Lady Michelle Obama
is known as one of the most fashionable First Ladies ever. It’s nothing to catch her in a designer dress
by the world’s most acclaimed designers.
Before Michelle was gracing the State of the Union Address in Prada, the
designer to wear was Keckley. Elizabeth
Hobbs Keckley, a former slave, would go on to be a dressmaker and confidant to
Mary Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln’s wife).
After being born into
slavery, impregnated by her owner, and being married for a short time, Elizabeth
learned the art of dressmaking. Her
dresses were so popular with her clients that they offered her a loan to buy
her freedom. Elizabeth dresses stood out
from the dresses of the time and she was an expert with fit. She would eventually become the dressmaker
for the political elite including Mary Todd Lincoln. She would become very close with Mary Lincoln
even being there for her when Lincoln was assassinated.
Unfortunately, due to her
tell-all memoir (Apparently, she was the TMZ of her generation)Mrs.
Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini.
she would lose her friendship with Mary and also her high-end clientele. Even though she was offered a faculty position at Ohio’s Wiberforce University teaching sewing, she would have to discontinue because of her health. She died in May of 1907 impoverished. Her story was revived in 2013 in the book
It is an honor to follow in their entrepreneurial foot steps. Today I open my Etsy shop, Ebony's Kitchen Spa selling homemade body butters and body scrubs. From today to the end of February you can get my Body Whip for $9.50 and Body Scrub for $8.50. Do not miss this store opening sale!
As always thank you for supporting this blog as well as my new business venture.
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