“If I've set an example for other people—not just black people, not just poor people, not just women—I want it to be that you shouldn't be limited in what you try to do."
Marjorie Stewart Joyner
Marjorie Stewart Joyner (1896–1994) was the first African American graduate of Chicago’s A. B. Molar Beauty School. She opened her own salon in 1916 and trained further with Madam C. J. Walker, a pioneer of the modern African American hair care and cosmetics industry. Within three years, Joyner became the national supervisor of more than 200 Walker beauty schools. She was also an inventor. Frustrated with the time-consuming method of curling or straightening hair one iron at a time, she patented a permanent waving machine with multiple curling irons, heated by electricity, to style entire sections of hair. She also developed Satin Tress, a preparation that relaxed tight curls.
Source for quote above: Christi Parsons, “63 Years Later, Inventor Glad She Made Waves,” Chicago Tribune, November 3, 1989, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-11-03-8901270983-story.html.
