Madam C.J. Walker Establishes Manufacturing Company and National Sales Force

Madam C.J. Walker incorporated the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis in 1910 and built a nationwide sales force of over 40,000 Black women 'Walker Agents.' Her door-to-door direct-sales model gave Black women unprecedented economic opportunity and independence, pioneering a business structure that would be widely imitated. Her company headquarters and factory provided high-wage employment in a city with pervasive racial discrimination.