Sarah Breedlove Walker: One in a Million - NBC Right Now/KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA |

From the U.S. Census Bureau

Sarah Breedlove Walker was born the daughter of former slaves and orphaned at the age of seven. She went on to become America's first African American woman millionaire business-owner.

Faced with the loss of her own hair from a scalp ailment, Walker - by then known as Madame C. J. Walker - invented a new hair-care process and began marketing a line of cosmetics for black women in 1905. She funded scholarships and donated funds that allowed Frederick Douglass's home to be turned into a museum.

Now, 38 percent of the nation's African American owned businesses are headed by women -- a higher percentage than any other minority race or ethnic group.

This profile is adapted from Profile America, a radio series produced by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2004.