“Woman Crush Wednesday: ANNIE TURNBO MALONE”

African-American Educator, Entrepreneur & Inventor

In the 1920s, 30s and 40s, with the new freedom came business and financial success for many women in Missouri. One of the nation's wealthiest African Americans was Annie Malone, founder and owner of Poro College, a cosmetics firm that started in St. Louis and later occupied an entire city block in Chicago.

* Annie was one of the first in Missouri to own a Rolls Royce
* Annie paid over $40,000 in taxes alone...in 1926
* Annie owned a whole city block in Chicago
* Annie's philanthropy was legendary
* Annie gave diamond rings for five years of service
* Annie gave cash awards for savings accounts & home purchases
* Annie trained well over 75,000 women entrepreneurs
* Annie trained Madam C.J. Walker to be a "Poro Agent"

Perhaps you have never heard of Annie before. If not, you're in good company. Most everyone reading this page has never heard of Annie. 

And if you are in the African American hair care or cosmetics industry, Annie is the "mother" of what you are doing. You are about to meet a remarkable woman...

Annie Malone: A Generous Entrepreneur:

You have heard of Oprah Winfrey? Sure, who hasn't? How about Madam C.J. Walker? No brainer. I can see heads nodding up and down all over the place.

How about Annie Malone? Blank stares. Silence. Crickets chirping. Never heard of her...

Yet, before Madam Walker, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, Oprah Winfrey or Cathy Hughes there was Annie Turnbo Malone (aka Annie Minerva Turnbo Pope Malone and Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone), a remarkable woman who made her mark during the early 20th century.

Malone is recorded as one of America’s first black female millionaires based on reports about her beauty and cosmetic enterprises -- Poro -- headquartered in St. Louis and Chicago. 

Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone (August 9, 1869—May 10, 1957) was an African-American businesswoman, educator, inventor and philanthropist. Annie was two years younger than Madam C. J. Walker. She had launched her hair care business four years before Sarah Breedlove (later known as Madam C. J. Walker). In the early 1900s Madam Walker worked as a "Poro Agent" for Annie for about one year.

In the first three decades of the 20th century, she founded and developed a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered around cosmetics for African-American women. Annie was born in Metropolis, Illinois to former slaves. She was the tenth of eleven children born to Robert Turnbo, a poor farmer, and Isabella Cook Turnbo.  Because her parents died when she was young, Annie was raised by her older sister in nearby Peoria, Illinois. She was a sickly child and missed a lot of school which resulted in her having to withdraw before completing high school.

While she was coming of age, the popular style among Black women was that of a “straight hair” look.  Black women were starting to turn their backs on the braided cornrow styles they’d associated with the fields of slavery and began to embrace a look which, for them meant, freedom and progression toward equality in America. 

While in Peoria, Malone took an early interest in hair textures. In the 1890s -- being a lover of styling hair -- Annie began to envision a way of straightening hair without having to use the methods of old which included using soap, goose fat, heavy oils, butter and bacon grease or the carding combs of sheep.  She’d also witnessed the method of hair straightening which employed lye sometimes mixed with potatoes, but was turned off by the procedure because it often resulted in damaged scalps and broken hair follicles. 

Coupled with the influence of her aunt who was an herbal doctor and her knowledge of Chemistry, Annie Turnbo developed a chemical which could be used to straighten hair without causing damage to the hair or scalp. By the time she was in her late 20′s, Turnbo had developed a straightening solution which would grant her entry into the annuals of hair care history.

By the beginning of the 1900s, Annie Malone began to revolutionize hair care methods for all African Americans. Armed with this revolutionary formula and a product she called “The Great Wonderful Hair Grower,” Annie moved to St. Louis in 1902. She hired some assistants and began selling her products door-to-door.  Word of her products and teaching method spread like wild fire and soon her products and her “Poro Method” of styling hair were a success.

"Poro" College:

 

Malone called it Poro, a West African (Mende) male secret or devotional society -- an organization located throughout Liberia and Sierra Leone dedicated to disciplining and enhancing the body spiritually and physically. There were some elements of the term that seem to indicate beauty. Even though it was not in vogue during that era, Annie wanted to connect her "Poro Agents" to their African roots and this was her way of doing that. She and her assistants sold her unique brand of hair care products door to door. 

Malone believed that if African American women improved their physical appearance, they would gain greater self-respect and achieve success in other areas of their lives.

By 1902, Malone's business growth led her to St. Louis, Missouri, which at the time held the fourth largest population of African Americans. In St. Louis she copyrighted her Poro brand beauty products. In 1914, in a St. Louis wedding, Malone married the school principal (and former Bible salesman), Aaron Eugene Malone.

By 1917, as the United States entered World War I, Annie Malone had become so successful that she founded and opened Poro College in St. Louis. It was the first educational institution in the United States dedicated to the study and teaching of black cosmetology. The school reportedly graduated over 75,000 agents world-wide, including the Caribbean. The school employed nearly 200 people. Its curriculum included instructions to train students on personal style to present themselves at work -- walking, talking and style of dress designed to maintain a solid public persona. The Poro College building was later purchased by St. James African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and demolished in 1965 to construct The James House.

The Black Philanthropist:

By 1926, the college employed 175 people. Franchised outlets in North and South America, Africa, and the Philippines employed some 75,000 women. Malone had become a wealthy woman. The Philadelphia Tribune reported that in 1923 Annie Malone paid the highest income tax of any African American in the country. For instance, her 1924 income tax payment totaled nearly $40,000. However, despite her wealth, Malone lived conservatively and gave away much of her fortune to help other African Americans. She is one of America's first major black philanthropists.

A $25,000 donation from Malone helped build the St. Louis Colored YWCA. 

From 1919 to 1943, Malone served as board president of the St. Louis Colored Orphan's Home. During this time she raised most of the orphanage's construction costs. She donated the first $10,000 to build the orphanage's new building in 1919. With her help, in 1922 it bought a facility at 2612 Annie Malone Drive (formally Goode Ave.) It continues to serve from the historic Ville neighborhood. Upgraded and expanded, the facility was renamed in her honor as the Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center in 1946. 

Malone donated large sums to countless charities. During the 1920s, Malone's philanthropy included financing the education of two full-time students in every historically black college and university in the country. Her $25,000 donation to Howard University was among the largest gifts the university had received by a private donor of African descent. She also contributed to the Tuskegee Institute.

Malone was very generous with family and employees. She educated many of her nieces and nephews and bought homes for her brothers and sisters. She awarded employees with lavish gifts for attendance, punctuality, service anniversaries, and as rewards for investing in real estate.

Malone also gave generously of her time in the community. She was president of the Colored Women's Federated Clubs of St. Louis, an executive committee member of the National Negro Business League and the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, a lifelong Republican, and a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Annie was also an honorary member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. -- founded January 16, 1920 on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.

 

The Chuck Berry Connection:

Tens of thousands of women were trained in the Poro System, but there was also a famous male student who was born in St. Louis in 1926. Bruce Pegg states in his book, “Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry,” that almost every day, as a child growing up on Goode Avenue, Chuck Berry would have walked past the stately columns of the St. Louis Colored Orphan’s Home on the block next to the Berry family home (no longer standing). 

Later on Chuck trained as a beautician under the Poro system, graduating in 1952. Aside from the fact that he was following his sisters Thelma and Lucy (who had, by that time, abandoned their music career in favor of the less glamorous but more stable occupation), there was another compelling reason for Berry to consider cosmetology as a career.  By this time, both Annie Malone and Madam C.J. Walker had vividly shown nearly every black community across the country, hairdressing was a vital means to economic independence.

Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist, had noted the significance of the occupations to blacks when he wrote an editorial in 1853 titled “Learn Trades or Starve," arguing that blacks could gain greater economic independence if they were given the opportunity to perfect useful skills.

One historian stated, “Barbershops, and beauty parlors, were independent businesses with a steady clientele and, as such, were important expressions of black entrepreneurial activity.” Cutting hair and cosmetology was recession-proof.

It was, simply, another extension of Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of economic independence, and as such would have been a tremendously attractive occupation to Chuck Berry at the time. But we all know what happened to his music career in 1958 when "Johnny B. Goode" hit the charts.

"Johnny Be Goode" -- Ever wondered why "Goode" was spelled that way? Since Chuck Berry lived at 2520 Goode Street for the first 5-6 years of his life, he got the word "Goode" from the street in St. Louis (historic Ville neighborhood) where he grew up -- next block over from the Orphan's Home (2612 Goode Street) started by Annie. One can only image how many times he had walked by the Orphan's Home in the early years of his life. In 1986 Goode Street was renamed Annie Malone Drive.



The Decline of Annie's Marriage and Business:
 
Malone's generosity raised her stature in the community but also contributed to the financial decline of her business. While she was spending time on civic affairs and distributing her wealth to various organizations, she left the day-to-day affairs of the business in the hands of managers, including her husband. Some of these managers were inexperienced or dishonest, eventually leading to the dismantling of her business empire.

For the six years leading up to 1927, Annie and Aaron Malone became embroiled in a power struggle over control of the Poro business. The struggle was kept quiet until 1927, when Aaron Malone filed for divorce and demanded half the business. He claimed that Poro's success was due to contacts he brought to the company. He courted black leaders and politicians who sided with him in the highly publicized divorce. 

Annie Malone's devotion to black women and charitable institutions led Poro workers and church leaders to support her. She also had the support of the press and Mary McLeod Bethune, president of the National Association of Colored Women. Having the support of so powerful a woman helped Annie Malone prevail in the dispute and allowed her to keep her business. She negotiated a settlement of $200,000.

In 1930 and entering her 60s, Malone moved her business to Chicago, where its location became known as the Poro block. Her financial trouble continued when she became the target of lawsuits, including one by a former employee who claimed credit for her success.  When the suit was settled in 1937, she was forced to sell the St. Louis property. Malone's business was further crippled by enormous debt to the government for unpaid real estate and excise taxes. (The federal government required a 20 percent tax on luxuries, including hair-care products during the 1920s.)

In 1943, during the middle of World War II, she owed almost $100,000 and was served a lien by the Internal Revenue Service. After fighting the lawsuits for eight years, she lost Poro to the government and other creditors, who by 1951 took control of her business enterprise -- selling off most of the holdings to pay taxes. 

She suffered financially from the devastating divorce (her second) and, soon thereafter, by two civil lawsuits, all during the Great Depression. The lawsuits (for liability to an employee and a St. Louis newspaper) partially crippled her ability to conduct business.

ANNIE MALONE'S LEGACY: Credit Where Credit is Due
 
Malone's business failure tarnished her image. Her former employee, Madame C.J. Walker, often overshadows Malone because Walker's business remained successful and more widely known. Walker is often credited as the originator of the black beauty and cosmetics business and the direct distribution and sales agent system that Malone developed.

Many historians believe Malone deserves more credit for her devotion to helping African Americans gain financial independence and her generous donations to educational, civic, and social causes.

On May 10, 1957, Annie Turnbo Malone (87 years of age) was treated for a stroke at Provident Hospital in Chicago where she died. At the time of her death Poro beauty colleges were in operation in more than thirty U.S. cities.

HER LEGACY STILL LIVES ON: 

St. Louis honors her memory with the Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center whose mission is "is to improve the quality of life for children, families, elderly and the community by providing social services, educational programs, advocacy and entrepreneurship." 

Who Created the Hot Comb? Annie Malone or Madam Walker?

 The answer is neither. It is reported that in 1872 a hairdresser named Marcel Grateau used a pressing comb on his clientele in Paris, who were trying to emulate the straight style of ancient Egyptian hair, but it’s not really known exactly who invented the device. Annie Malone was the first to patent a hot comb. Madame CJ Walker improved upon the comb by widening the teeth for use on black hair.

Cite:

For even more awesome information, history and photos please visit our resource sites at:

http://www.freemaninstitute.com/poro.htm
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/bhc.htm
  
Much Love, Dr.Shermaine #EnjoyTheRead #PleaseShare #KnowYourHistory #ShareYourHistory #CelebrateYourHistory

“Woman Crush Wednesday: Dr. May Edward Chinn"

Dr. May Edward Chinn made significant contributions to medicine in both cancer diagnosis and as the ONLY woman doctor in Harlem in the 1920’s.

EARLY LIFE:

May Chinn (1896-1980) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Her father, William Lafayette Chinn, was a light-skinned slave who escaped from the Virginia Chinn Plantation when he was only 11. (The Chinn family of Virginia was from Scotland; this was the Americanized version of their name which was either deCheyne or Chein). He made his way to Massachusetts where he found work as a stable hand.


May’s mother, Lula Ann Evans, was born on the Chickahominy Indian Reservation near Norfolk, Virginia. She was of Native American and African American descent. She, too, moved to Massachusetts and met and married William.


William had trouble staying employed, partly because he drank. He decided work would be easier to find if he, Lula Ann, and their young daughter moved to New York City. Lula Ann quickly found a job as a housekeeper and cook.
Lula Ann was determined to provide May with a good education. She saved enough money to send her young daughter to Bordentown Manual Training and Industrial School, a boarding school for black children in New Jersey. However, May developed osteomyelitis (a bone infection) and had to return to New York to be treated. She then joined her mother for her recovery. Lula Ann was then employed at the Charles Tiffany Estate in Irvington, New York.

 

LIFE WITH THE TIFFANY’S:

The Tiffany family welcomed May as a member of their family. They included May in the Tiffany children’s schooling. She took music lessons just as they did, and she attended concerts and cultural events with the family.

When patriarch Charles Tiffany died, the estate was sold. Lula Ann and May moved back to the city and rented an apartment where William joined them.

Lula Ann continued to keep a watchful eye on May’s opportunities to learn. She knew white schools received better resources, so she often uprooted the family to move to a school district where May was likely to get the best education. May also continued studying piano.

In 11^th grade, May dropped out of school and took a job tying ribbons on calendars in a factory. Her mother must have been devastated that she left school.

 

SECOND CHANCE FOR EDUCATION:

When applications were due at Columbia University Teacher’s College, a friend encouraged May to apply. Even without a high school diploma, May was accepted and entered the university in 1917 as a music major.

Paul Robeson, an aspiring opera singer at the time, was among those who admired May’s gifted piano playing. One day his accompanist did not arrive on time, and he asked May to accompany him. After that, she often played for him at his concerts in New York City.

One of the music professors at Columbia took issue with May’s race, which lessened her pleasure in some of the music classes.  In her unpublished autobiography, she wrote: “Because I was of African descent, [he said] that unless I could afford to go to Europe for final ‘polishing’ in my music, I would probably end up singing in a cabaret in America.” This was not the career May had in mind.

Fortunately, May had a well-rounded schedule of classes. In a science class, she wrote a paper about sewage disposal that caught the eye of the professor. The woman encouraged May to change her major.  May heeded the professor’s advice and decided science—eventually medicine—might offer her a brighter future.

 

MEDICAL SCHOOL:

In 1921, she graduated from college and was accepted at Bellevue Medical School. She was the FIRST African American, male or female, ever admitted! In 1926, she was hired as an intern at Harlem Hospital. This, too, was notable, because at the time Harlem Hospital primarily served white people! They had NO black doctors!

Because black doctors were not given visiting privileges at any New York area hospital, a few doctors grouped together to establish the Edgecombe Sanitarium in Harlem where they sometimes saw patients. Dr. May Chinn became their junior member. This provided her with an apartment where she and her parents lived, but it gave her the responsibility of all night calls. It was an exhausting time.

While the Sanitarium answered some needs, the doctors also found it necessary to make house calls. Sometimes they needed to perform surgery in a patient’s home. May learned to carry a small lamp from her office with her. Performing surgery on a dining table or a bed was difficult; if the lighting was poor it was all but impossible.

Because medical care was not readily accessible to the black population, Dr. Chinn saw many patients with advanced stages of cancer. She determined to try to change their prognosis.

 

HOSPITAL BENEFITS:

Since African American doctors were denied hospital visiting privileges, this not only harmed their ability to serve their patients, but it cut off their access to more education. Hospitals often sponsored seminars for doctors, and the atmosphere around a hospital also permitted informal consultations with colleagues. Without a hospital connection, May Chinn and other non-white doctors lacked these opportunities.

Chinn was determined to learn, so when one of her patients needed to be seen by a specialist, Chinn went to medical appointments with them as the family doctor. On one of these visits to a hospital clinic, she ran into a professor who remembered her. He offered to teach her how to do biopsies. This broadened her opportunity to help her patients, and she soon began performing biopsies for other black doctors, so their patients, too, could benefit.

In 1940, Dr. Chinn was finally granted admitting privileges at Harlem Hospital after Mayor Fiorello La Guardia ordered hospitals to integrate. The Harlem Riots in 1935 spurred political pressure for the city to do so.

 

LEARNING ABOUT CANCER:

She became convinced that there must be ways to diagnose cancer earlier and possibly slow or cure it. In 1933, she entered Columbia University’s School of Public Health where she earned a Master of Science degree. Her studies there connected her to medical researcher and doctor George Papanicolaou. Papanicolau was developing cytological methods for the study of cancer, and May Chinn was among the doctors who contributed to his studies. (Papanicolaou established the parameters for the “Pap Smear,” a diagnostic tool that has improved the cancer prognosis for millions of women of all backgrounds.)

 

DR. MAY CHINN’S RESEARCH:

In her work, Dr. Chinn pursued two paths to improve the health of her patients. Based on her exposure to Dr. Papanicolaou, she studied what could be learned from exfoliative cytology (cells that are shed from the body).

Dr. Chinn also valued personal health profiles and documented the backgrounds of her patients to better understand factors that might indicate a tendency for cancer. She also pioneered ways to conduct physical exams differently. Even if patients were asymptomatic for cancer, Dr. Chinn always promoted cancer screening methods as part of regular medical care.

Dr. Chinn’s work caught the attention of the science board at Rockefeller University. However, after she was offered a fellowship by the University, it was quickly withdrawn when the administrators learned she was African American and not Chinese, as they had supposed.

 

DR. MAY CHINN’S LATER LIFE:

Dr. Chinn became a legend in Harlem, and did not close her private practice until she was 81. Even then she still volunteered at health clinics in Harlem.

Toward the end of her career, she received special awards from several schools. She accepted an Honorary Doctor of Science degree at Columbia University for her contributions to medicine. She was also recognized as a distinguished alumnus by Columbia Teachers College. The citation on her award from Columbia reads: “a brave warrior in the fight against sickness, poverty and injustice.” And New York University granted her a Doctor of Science degree for “long life service” for her pioneering work in early cancer detection and her dedicated service to her patients in Harlem.

 

OTHER CAUSES AND PURSUITS:

To Dr. Chinn, civil rights causes and greater justice in the medical world were important. Before 1920, she campaigned for women’s suffrage; later, she worked for civil rights. She was one of the founders of Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society, which aided black women in medical school. In 1977, she expanded her influence by joining the Phelps-Stokes Fund, an educational foundation for medical students from Africa to come to the U.S. for medical school.

She was also an active member of Delta Sigma Theta, a sorority founded in 1913 to support educational excellence among African American women.

She died in 1980, but she left an unpublished autobiography, offering this advice: “Become involved with the problems of your Nation, your State, your City, and especially your immediate neighborhood. Help those with problems—help them to take the next step UPWARDS.”

Source: America Comes Alive! www.americacomesalive.com

Kate Kelly

Much Love, Dr. Shermaine #KnowYourHistory #CelebrateYourHistory #ShareYourHistory #BlackWomenWhoRock