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Madam CJ Walker Gets Barbie

August 31, 2022 10:24AM EDT
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Madam CJ Walker Gets Barbie
A photograph of Sarah Breedlove driving a car, she was better known as Madam C.J. Walker, the first woman to become a self-made millionaire in the United States, 1911. From the New York Public Library. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).

Madam C.J. Walker, a Black pioneer and the first female self-made millionaire, is getting her own Barbie doll.  In a news release on Monday, Mattel announced that Walker, who lived from 1867 to 1919, is the latest national figure to join its “Inspiring Women” series. Walker, a daughter of formerly enslaved sharecroppers, became a self-made millionaire by selling her line of hair care products and cosmetics made specifically for Black women.  Mattel worked closely with Walker’s great-great-granddaughter on the project. Others featured in Mattel’s Inspiring Women series are former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, and poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. Who should have their own Barbie?

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