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Annie Turnbo Malone: The Woman Who Built Poro
She built a Black beauty company and a college in St. Louis, trained the woman who became Madam C.J. Walker, and gave most of her money away.
Checked November 1, 2026 · The Newsroom
Annie Turnbo Malone built Poro, and most of us learned the name of the woman who worked for her instead. Her story is a business plan.
Who she was
The State Historical Society of Missouri says Annie Turnbo Malone was born on August 9, 1869, in Metropolis, Illinois. Some sources give 1877, so you will see both. Around the turn of the 20th century she created a product to straighten Black women's hair without damaging it.
How she built it
She moved to St. Louis in 1902 to reach a bigger market, and her products did well around the 1904 World's Fair. She did not stop at selling a jar. She hired mostly women as Poro agents and trained them in the Poro system. One of those agents was a St. Louis woman named Sarah Breedlove, who worked as a commission agent for Malone's Poro Company and went on to become Madam C.J. Walker.
Malone established Poro College in St. Louis, a cosmetology school and training center. The Society dates it to 1918, and the City of St. Louis to 1917. The City says it filled a whole block in The Ville, had nearly 200 local workers, and is now the James House. By the end of World War I, the Society says, she was a millionaire.
Was she the first Black woman millionaire?
You will see that claim for both Malone and Walker. We could not confirm either one as first, so we will not print it as fact. What the record does support is that Malone built the Poro training system and that Walker worked inside it as her agent.
What she did with the money
The Society says she gave away most of her money to charity. In 1946 the St. Louis orphans home was renamed in her honor. It is now the Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center.
What hit her
Her husband, Aaron Malone, whom she married in 1914, filed for divorce in 1927 and sought half the business. They settled for $200,000. She moved her headquarters to Chicago in 1930, and the 1929 crash and several lawsuits hit the company hard. Poro still had 32 branches by the mid-1950s. She died in Chicago on May 10, 1957, at 87.
What to take from it
- Own the product and the training, not just the sale.
- Build an institution that outlives one store.
- Put your agreements in writing before you need them.
- Give some of it back. Her name is still on that home.