Malone, Annie Turnbo

Impact on the world

Built one of the first major Black-owned beauty enterprises and pioneered the direct-sales agent model later associated with her mentee Madam C.J. Walker, who began as one of her Poro agents. Her Poro system created economic independence for as many as 75,000 women across the U.S., Caribbean, Africa, and the Philippines, made her one of the wealthiest Black women in America by the 1920s, and funded major philanthropy — including the St. Louis Colored Orphans Home (renamed the Annie Malone Children & Family Service Center in her honor) and Howard University's medical school. Historians increasingly credit Malone as a true originator of the modern Black hair-care industry.

Life & background

Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone (1877-1957) was a chemist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist born in Metropolis, Illinois, to formerly enslaved parents. By around 1900 she had formulated her own non-damaging hair and scalp products, which she and her agents first sold door-to-door across Illinois before she relocated to St. Louis in 1902. She trademarked her line as 'Poro' in 1906 and in 1918 opened Poro College — a combined cosmetology school, manufacturing plant, retail store, dormitory, and community gathering space that employed nearly 200 people locally. A costly divorce, heavy federal taxes, and the Great Depression later eroded her fortune, but she remained in business and philanthropically active until her death in Chicago in 1957.

Sources

1. Smithsonian NMAAHC; State Historical Society of Missouri (Historic Missourians); Encyclopedia.com; U.S. patent record