Black History: Special Delivery!
Black History Month is a time to honor the visionaries who defied the odds, built wealth, and left behind lasting legacies. When most people think of the first Black millionaire in America, Madam C.J. Walker often comes to mind. But what if we told you that decades before Walker built her beauty empire, another Black entrepreneur quietly amassed a fortune?
William Alexander Leidesdorff was a businessman, ship captain, and real estate mogul whose impact on early America is often overlooked. Born in 1810 in the Danish West Indies to African and European parents, he built wealth through shipping, real estate, and politics in California. He became San Francisco’s first treasurer, helped establish its first public school, and by the time of his death in 1848, his estate was valued at over $1.4 million—equivalent to tens of millions today. Despite his success, much of his land was seized after his passing, and his contributions nearly erased from history.
Decades later, another entrepreneur was making history in an entirely different industry. Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove in 1867, was the daughter of formerly enslaved parents in Louisiana. Orphaned at seven and working as a washerwoman in her early twenties, she discovered a hair care formula that changed her life. Through sharp business strategy and marketing, she built the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, creating thousands of jobs for Black women and reshaping the beauty industry.
Walker is widely recognized as the first self-made Black female millionaire, earning over $1 million in her lifetime. When she died in 1919, her estate was valued at approximately $600,000 (around $9 million today), but her assets—including Villa Lewaro and her company—suggest her total net worth may have exceeded $1 million. Some historians speculate that her former employer and beauty industry rival, Annie Turnbo Malone, may have reached millionaire status first. Malone’s Poro College was once valued at over $14 million. Still, with fewer surviving financial records to confirm her personal wealth, Walker remains credited as the first documented Black woman to achieve millionaire status.
While Walker broke barriers for Black women in business, Leidesdorff holds the distinction as the first known Black millionaire in the U.S., predating her by more than 70 years.
Both Leidesdorff and Walker built wealth not just for themselves but for their communities. Leidesdorff helped lay the foundation for public education in California, while Walker was a major philanthropist, donating to Black colleges, the NAACP, and anti-lynching efforts. Though they lived in different eras and industries, both redefined what was possible for Black entrepreneurs.
Check out this video to learn more:
Another installment of melanated mail has been delivered. Ponder, reflect, and pass it on.
Sources:
- On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker – A’Lelia Bundles
- The Life & Times of William Alexander Leidesdorff – California Historical Society
- National Park Service – Black Wealth in America
