"Madame N.A. Franklin" [1880-1934]

Was a pioneer in cosmetics for black women. Darker face powders, which appealed in the 1920's were the beginning of cosmetology for African American women. But there was at least one black woman's enterprise that precceded this event. Madame N.A. Franklin,a Texas entrepreneur,began her Franklin Beauty School in 1915.She began by teaching hairdressing and beauty care to black women in their homes.She also created and sold oils and lotions for black women in Texas.Eventually Madame Franklin opened a venture in Chicago,where she moved in the 1920s. The business stayed in the family after she died .Her adopted daughter,Abigail,and her Son-in-law, J.H. Jemison, returned to Texas and bought the Houston school from Madame Franklin's former husband. At this point it became a state licensed school of cosmetology. By the start of the twenty-first century, Franklin Beauty School,in one form or another,had been training hairdressers for more than eight decades.