thank you again very much. >> learn more about the people the civil that shape war and reconstruction here on c-span3 every saturday on american history tv. >> our c-span cities tour takes american history tv on the road to feature the history of cities across america. here is a recent program. >> madame walker was mainly known for being an entrepreneur, careaving her own hair line, and for being a millionaire. postas born two years emancipation. so we are talking about the throes of the vestiges of slavery and enslavement. she was the child of enslaved parents who became sharecroppers.

so poverty was a way of life for them. and working hard from sunrise to sunset from an early age was part of her life. she was orphaned very early, around the age of six, moved to vicksburg, mississippi, with her sister. she then moved again to st. louis to work with her brothers who were barbers. there is no lockstep for what african american women's lives were during the turn of the century. many worked on farms. many were sharecroppers. but most were not able to get education and could not have the job of their dreams because of discrimination and segregation laws. and these were laws, as opposed to just biases and feelings. these were hard, codified laws that prohibited women from, in general, from living and working where they wanted to but particularly african american women. she went to pittsburgh and decided it was not a strong enough base for her.

she came to indianapolis, the crossroads of america. and at the time, this was the crossroads for railroad, distribution into the south, into the east, into the midwest, and into the far west, so she thought this was a great location to start and grow her business, and it had a decent-sized population of african-americans. the growth for a business is because she empowered not just herself but her employees and agents. so she sold her wares by way of madame c.j. walker agents and, she also had beauty culturists. she started beauty schools and she trained her agents to go out and sell not just for her but for themselves. so now, women who were laundresses, cooks, maids, and other types of menial positions, were able to get dressed and sell to one another.

and she went all around the country to create this network of women who were selling her products. madame walker was about uplifting and encouraging her race as well as her employees and her agents. so here, you see original documents of a diploma and recognition from a college for teaching madame c.j. walker's method of beauty culture. this is not given to one person in particular, this is a stock one that was in her collection. but this is what it would look like. the women who were part of her agents, she had conventions for them so they could come together. they could bond and continue to learn, but to make sure that they knew they were special, too, she created these very pretty agents, complete with member, her photograph, because it was about her, and it was her

branding of herself on her business. there is a myth, and we can dispel that right now, that madame walker invented the hot comb. she did not. but her agents used these hot combs. these are circa 1915, and they are courtesy of her great, great granddaughter, but with that, what she did use, these are exact examples of her work and her products from the 1920's. but this is what they looked like. this was the original drawing for her wonderful hair grower. through her earnings, she became a philanthropist as well as an activist, and they were tied hand in hand. so she was very generous with her employees and her friends and her agents, but she also became active in civil rights of the day. she eventually left indianapolis because she felt the treatment

here was pretty impressive, even -- oh presses, even -- even though she had so much going for her. she owned her own property, owned her own house, owned her owned her own factory, but it was still in the throes of jim crow segregation, and it was rather punitive, so she thought people in new york where more inviting and interested, so she moved to harlem. this is one of my favorite items in the collection that we have in the library as well as in the exhibit. and it is a letter to the president of the united states and congress of the united states, and it went to president woodrow wilson. and it is about the silent protest, the need grow silent negro silent protest parade,

that happened along fifth avenue, where you can see in the background on the bottom, women are dressed in white, the children marched with them in front, dressed in white, and this was a planned march to talk about and protest against all the lynchings, people being lynched by mobs without trial. and it is signed by madame c.j. walker. and to date, there is still no law that is an anti-lynching law in america. history is often based on the stories that people tell. and the facts and documents and the papers that are culminated to get to that point, but what makes history so poignant is who tells the story, and we often hear people's stories by people who are not them, and it is important to hear african american women stories, women stories, told by african american women, and african american men. so to elevate an iconic person like madame walker from

soundbite history, from two hair grafts, it is important because her legacy not only touches all women, and it is american history as well as black history, it reframes her life as a woman. she was more than just a pretty face, she was more than somebody's wife. she was the entrepreneur. she was the president. she was the chairman. she was the philanthropist. she was the activist. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] american history tv, only on c-span3. >> c-span, your unfiltered view of government, created by cable in 1979, and brought to you today by your television provider.

>> george mason university professor cynthia kerner discusses her new book, "inventing disaster: the culture of she spoke at the virginia museum of history and culture in richmond, virginia. >> we are joined by cynthia kierner, who is a professor of history at george mason university. she is the author of several .ooks most recently, the topic of today's talk, inventing