India, Nov. 7 -- Sarah Breedlove spent many years washing clothes to make ends meet for herself and her daughter. Under the name Madam C.J. Walker, she built her hair-care products business with clients across the country. According to the National Park Service, she turned her fight against hair loss into a business in Indianapolis.

Breedlove was born in December 1867 in Delta, Louisiana, to parents who had been enslaved sharecroppers. Breedlove lost her parents during childhood and went to stay with her elder sister. She worked as a washerwoman in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She married Moses Williams in her early teens and had her first daughter at 17. She married again after her first husband died in 1887 and moved to St. Louis, Missouri....