Written by Linda M. Nance, Founding President, Annie Malone Historical Society

Annie Malone may have established her brand and articulated her financial wealth as a resident of Missouri, but her roots and resting place are in Illinois. She was born to formerly enslaved parents who settled in Metropolis, Illinois, just after the Civil War. She was the tenth of eleven children and distinguished herself in more ways than one. She was not just the trail-blazing pioneer of the African American hair care and beauty industry, her business strategies facilitated the building of an empire that changed the economic outlook for African American women around the world. 

Even though her father returned after his service in the Union Army, Malone lost both her parents and was orphaned at an early age. Cared for by older brothers and sisters, Malone eventually settled in Peoria, Illinois with her sister Ada. She was a fragile child and often missed school. She attended Lincoln Elementary and Peoria High Schools. She did not complete her high school studies due to her continued struggles with illness. It was during this period Malone learned from an aunt to successfully mix herbs and oils for healing. With her aunt’s help, she became stronger and quite successful at developing her lotions, ointments, and salves to heal the scalp. Annie’s creations became renowned for healing sores of the scalp and growing hair with the “Wonderful Hair Grower”.

Although her sister Ada disapproved, Malone and her younger sister Laura moved to Lovejoy, Illinois in 1900. They rented a one-room house and went door to door demonstrating and selling her hair products. Word spread fast as did her customer base. News of the World’s Fair and her interest in expanding her business prompted her desire to move to St. Louis, Missouri in 1902. 

Three major business expansions occurred in St. Louis. Each one was larger than the other. Her fourth and largest expansion Malone built from the ground up, the Poro College. It was the kingpin of her manufacturing empire and was viewed as the most significant undertaking for a person of color in the country. The complex also functioned as the social center for the community. 

Malone was the first African American woman to organize the opening of a series of specialized schools to teach the art of hair care and beauty culture. Malone trained more than 75,000 women around the world in her lifetime. There were Poro Agencies in most U.S. states including Alaska, along with other countries such as Canada, Haiti, Cuba, The Bahamas, Central, and South America, Africa, and the Philippines. She piloted five business expansions and provided civic and philanthropic support to businesses, people, hospitals, and scholarships. She did all this while managing the strain of two ugly and very public divorces, battling various legal challenges, and navigating the devastating impacts of racism, sexism, rampant discrimination, lynching, race riots, and the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.

Malone’s fifth business expansion came in her return to Illinois. In 1930, she left St. Louis in caravan fashion, for Chicago with approximately 150 Poro College employees and their families in tow. Before the move, she had acquired three additional properties on South Parkway, near the existing Poro College building, and continued the sale and manufacture of her hair care products. The Irvin C. Mollison Elementary School in Chicago is now the location where the once famed “Poro Block” stood.

On Friday, May 10, 1957, Annie Malone died in Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. She was laid to rest in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.