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Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone (August 9, 1877[2][3] – May 10, 1957)[4] was an American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist.[5][6] In the first three decades of the 20th century, she founded and developed a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered on cosmetics for African-American women.

By the beginning of the 1900s, Turnbo moved with her older siblings to Lovejoy, now known as Brooklyn, Illinois.[5] While experimenting with hair and different hair-care products, she developed and manufactured her own line of non-damaging hair straighteners, special oils, and hair-stimulant products for African-American women.[12] She named her new product “Wonderful Hair Grower”. To promote her new product, Turnbo sold the Wonderful Hair Grower in bottles door-to-door.[8] Her products and sales began to revolutionize hair-care methods for all African Americans.[13]

In 1902, Turnbo moved to a thriving St. Louis, where she and three employees sold her hair-care products door-to-door. As part of her marketing, she gave away free treatments to attract more customers.[8]

Due to the high demand for her product in St. Louis, Turnbo opened her first shop in 1902 at 2223 Market Street.[8] She also launched a wide advertising campaign in the black press, held news conferences, toured many southern states, and recruited many women whom she trained to sell her products.

One of her selling agents, Sarah Breedlove Davis,[15][6] later known as Madam C. J. Walker, operated first in St. Louis and later in Denver, Colorado, until a disagreement led Walker to leave the company. Walker allegedly took the original Poro formula and created her own brand of it (this is disputed). This development was one of the reasons which led then Turnbo to copyright her products under the name "Poro" because of what she called fraudulent imitations and to discourage counterfeit versions.[18] Poro may have received this name from a Mende word for devotional society or it may be a combination of the married names of Annie Pope and her sister Laura Roberts. Due to the growth in her business, in 1910 Turnbo moved to a larger facility on 3100 Pine Street.

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Poro College

 

Diploma Day at Poro College, 1920

In 1918, she established Poro College, a cosmetology school and center.[1] The building included a manufacturing plant, a retail store where Poro products were sold, business offices, a 500-seat auditorium, dining and meeting rooms, a roof garden, dormitory, gymnasium, bakery, and chapel. It served the African-American community as a center for religious and social functions.[12]

The college's curriculum addressed the whole student; students were coached on personal style for work: on walking, talking, and a style of dress designed to maintain a solid persona.[20] Poro College employed nearly 200 people in St. Louis. Through its school and franchise businesses, the college created jobs for almost 75,000 women in North and South America, Africa and the Philippines.[21]

Her business thrived until 1927 when her husband filed for divorce. Having served as president of the company, he demanded half of the business' value, based on his claim that his contributions had been integral to its success.[22] The divorce suit forced Poro College into court-ordered receivership. With support from her employees and powerful figures such as Mary McLeod Bethune, she negotiated a settlement of $200,000. This affirmed her as the sole owner of Poro College, and the divorce was granted.[12]

After the divorce, Turnbo moved most of her business to Chicago's South Parkway (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive), where she bought an entire city block.[15] Other lawsuits followed. In 1937, during the Great Depression, a former employee filed suit, also claiming credit for Poro's success. To raise money for the settlement, Turnbo Malone sold her St. Louis property. Although much reduced in size, her business continued to thrive.[1]