Bodies That Work. Tami Miyatsu

Walker sold “beauty, independence, and financial success” to African American women.¹⁰⁹ One letter from a Walker agent boasted about the success she had enjoyed after taking the job: “Words cannot be found that would give Madam C. J. Walker’s wonderful discovery too much praise …. It has helped us financially. We have been able to purchase a home and meet our obligations.”¹¹⁰ A woman performing a job as a “washer” could only earn between $8 and $20 a month, but a top Walker agent could make as much as $33 in one week, which was double or triple the earnings of white male factory workers.¹¹¹ Success stories about increased monthly earnings, purchasing new homes, and children’s educational achievements illustrated the extent to which Walker’s business, and its expanding network, provided black women and their families with an avenue for upward social mobility.

      Walker employed direct marketing to recruit new agents. Personal communication was critical to enlisting new agents, because hair care skills were more easily learned in person-to-person settings, as well as because the business depended on a local network of women and their word-of-mouth advertising.¹¹² Walker went on the road to recruit new agents. Her typical recruitment process entailed three steps: first, an illustrated lecture on the “The Negro Woman in Business” conducted at a local church; second, hair care demonstrations; and, finally, an in-person course, which was later available through the mail.¹¹³

      Furthermore, Walker had faithful and devoted agents working for her to sustain this nationwide organization. Facing a growing rivalry with Poro College, Kelsey’s School of Beauty Culture, and other hair care companies, Walker hired and sent out her circulating representatives as recruiters, club organizers, counselors, and spies to both maintain and expand her network of 20,000 active agents. Alice G. Burnett, one of Walker’s four traveling representatives, regularly wrote to company attorney Freeman Briley Ransom about her daily activities.¹¹⁴ In a letter dated September 8, 1918, Burnett asks for information about forming a club: “Some of the Agents told me that Mme. said not to organize [a local club] unless they had ten Agents. I told them seven. You see I don’t want the agents to think Mme. or I either made a mistake about such things.”¹¹⁵ Burnett also informs Ransom about their competitors. After attending a large quilting bee at a church in South Bend, Indiana, she writes to Ransom, “I think I interested one woman. All the others thought one agent was enough for this town. There are two ←36 | 37→‘Poro’ agents here. [However,] I think these women would rather work for white people.”¹¹⁶ “I have so many complaints,” she writes to Ransom from Washington, D.C., “until I hardly know how to begin to tell you.”¹¹⁷ Nevertheless, fielding complaints was seen as something positive because, along with the company’s national conventions of Walker agents, such communication allowed agents to feel connected to top management and to become more involved in the business as franchised owners. Thus, Walker’s direct marketing led to an accurate grasp of the conditions experienced by local agents, and it allowed for the management to run the national network efficiently.

      In addition to direct marketing, the universal values embedded in Walker’s grammar were at the core of the loyalty expressed by tens of thousands of agents to Walker and her company. Walker’s business philosophy—humanitarianism, individualism, and egalitarianism—kept her agents socially inspired and politically motivated. First, humanitarianism gained new valence in building Walker’s marketing dynasty. In her “Hints to Agents” (ca.1917), which provided agents with detailed hints for business success, Walker warns them against the “selfish” pursuit of profit: “Do not be narrow and selfish to the extent that you would not sell goods to anyone because they do not take the treatment from you. We are anxious to help all humanity, the poor as well as the rich, especially those of our race.”¹¹⁸ Another article prepared for a convention publicizes Walker’s spiritual leadership: “Madam Walker is intensely interested in every thing that means the betterment of humanity and her Race, is in great demand as a public speaker, and is identified with many civic and religious bodies …. [T];his generous hearted woman is ever active, ‘Lifting as she climbs.’ ”¹¹⁹ Walker and her company intentionally used the same slogan, “Lifting as We [They] Climb,” as that of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), an African American women’s national organization pursuing the same goal of African Americans’ social advancement, albeit in different ways.¹²⁰

      Individualism was another cornerstone of Walker’s business. Each agent started with the company as an employee; however, when that agent demonstrated the ability to establish an independent business, Walker would permit her to run a franchise.¹²¹ The Madam Walker Beauty Manual provided detailed advice—known as the “Ten Commandments of the Beauty Operator”—on how to operate a successful business: “Be considerate of the property as well as the feelings of others”; “Love your business”; “Do not be boastful, but be sure of your ability”; “Go about your work silently, accurately and with confidence”; “Whether at work or at play, live above reproach”; “Do not cut prices or hold enmity against your competitor”; “Do not neglect to advertise”; “Keep your shop windows attractive ←37 | 38→and keep up-to-date”; “Keep yourself and your operators clean and your shop freshly decorated”; and “See that you have a full supply of Madam C. J. Walker’s Preparations at all times and remember that a sale to each customer is more money for you.”¹²² Although the word “commandments” sounds perhaps a bit didactic, these instructions nevertheless fostered agents’ professionalism, granted them autonomy, and cultivated their loyalty, for although they knew that success ultimately depended upon their daily activities and individual business acumen, they could also expect to receive the company’s full support.

      Finally, Walker’s egalitarianism boosted agents’ morale. For Walker, business and politics were united, and her agents’ economic strength acted as a catalyst for their activism. Walker frequently spoke to African American women about “the importance of their getting into the world of business, of acquiring a footing in the soil, making themselves financially independent, and setting an example for all peoples in thrift, industry, and the practical application of their mental training.”¹²³ The act of selling health and beauty could not be divorced from the politics of the day. For example, at her 1917 national convention, her agents sent a telegraph to President Woodrow Wilson saying, “We the representatives of the National Convention of The Madam C. J. Walker Agents … respectfully urge that you as President of the United States use your great influence that Congress enact the necessary laws to prevent a recurrence of such disgraceful affairs [as the East St. Louis Race Riot].”¹²⁴