APUSH Research Paper

The late 1800s and early 1900s, during the era of post Emancipation, the United States was a period of identity exploration, enlightenment, and empowerment, as well as interdivision, discrimination, and adaptation for the African American peoples. Social revolutionists like Marcus Garvey and role modeled entrepreneurs like Madam CJ Walker were among the many blacks that influenced the national black community during their time of struggle and search for societal and economical direction. Walker and Garvey both strived for the advancement of their people, but had different long term effects on blacks and plans for the future. Walker’s use of Eurocentric ideals to beautify Black features socially and economically carried her higher than any woman, let alone black woman, in the business world. Her use of advertisements created a standard of black beauty in America that would gain acceptance. Garvey’s efforts to create a movement glorifying Afrocentric culture and lifestyle resulted in criticism from his own people and federal attention. These historical figures in the African American community were a part of a long lasting conflict of identity within the black race and the continuation of developing a black American culture completely different than African culture, creating a disparity between what it means to be African and African American. Madam CJ Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, was the first one of her family born into freedom in 1867 in Delta, Louisiana. With the time period’s lack of indoor plumbing, central heating, and electricity, most Americans bathed infrequently, causing people like Walker to experience hair loss and scalp disease. Walker experimented with home remedies to find a cure. Soon, she developed her own line of hair care and moved throughout the country to major industrial cities like Pittsburgh and Indianapolis to spread its use. In Pittsburgh, Walker established Lelia College in 1908 to educated hair culturists and