OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” : ANNIE M. T. MALONE

Annie was born on August 9, 1869 on a farm near Metropolis, Illinois in Massac County, Illinois( two years after Madam C.J. Walker ). After her father left the family to fight for the Union Army in the American Civil War, her mother moved the family to Metropolis, Illinois. Sadly, her father never returned home from the war, and her mother also died, leaving Annie to go and live with her older sister[ Ana Moody ] in Peoria, Illinois. Annie’s interest in hair and chemistry got her to experimenting with hair products. In 1900, Annie and her siblings moved to Brooklyn, Illinois. There she developed her own line of hair care products for Black females. She named her new product “Wonderful Hair Grower”. Annie recruited other Black women to help sell her products door-to-door. In 1902, she moved her business to St. Louis, Missouri. Many Black People are surprised to find out that before “Madam C.J. Walker” struck out on her on and became a millionaire, she worked as a hair care selling agent for Annie Turnbo Malone. In 1918, Annie founded Poro College, a cosmetology school and center. The building included a manufacturing plant, a retail store where Poro products were sold, business offices, a 500-seat auditorium, dining and meeting rooms, a roof garden, dormitory, gymnasium, bakery, and chapel( it also served the Black community as a center for religious and social functions). Poro College employed “NEARLY 200” people in St. Louis. Through its school and franchise businesses, the college created jobs for almost 75,000 women in North and South America, Africa and the Philippines. She later moved her business to Chicago, Illinois. Additionally, Annie is noted as being one of the wealthiest Black females of her day. Annie M.T. Malone died on May 10, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois. In closing, I would like to mention that even during slavery in America, Black People have had their own “BLACK-OWNED” businesses{ they also created jobs for other Blacks }. Booker T Washington and the organisation he founded( The National Negro Business League ) even had yearly conventions where Black Business-Owners met and collaborated with one another. Also, between 1901 and his death in 1915, Booker T Washington took several tours of different towns, cities, and states documenting the progress of Negroes in business[ he wrote a “419 page” book called “The Negro in Business” ; the book was published in 1907 by Hertel, Jenkins & Company, and a copy is held by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture as well as the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture ]. His book included details,pictures, and names of many successful Black Business-Owners such as Junius G Groves [ The Potato King ] of Edwardsville, Kansas, E.C. Berry{ owner of the famous Berry Hotel }, and many other Black Business-Owners of that day & time! During Booker T Washington’s tour of Louisiana & New Orleans in April of 1915, few people would have ever believed that it would be his last visit { just seven months before his death } to Louisiana.