In 1914, Malone married Aaron E. Malone, a high school principal. By 1917, Poro Beauty College was opened in St. Louis. It was the first educational facility for Black cosmetology in the United States. According to Malone’s site, the school generated 75,000 salespersons, or “agents,” worldwide, including in the Caribbean.
In 1920, Malone’s headquarters in St. Louis and Chicago was reported to have assets worth $14 million. It has also been written that Malone was worth over $1 million in 1918.
The Philadelphia Tribune wrote about Malone, reporting that in 1923 she paid the highest income tax of any African-American. She was also the board president of the St. Louis Colored Orphan’s Home, and donated money to help build the orphanage. It was later renamed the Annie Malone’s Children’s Home and still stands today as the Annie Malone Children and Family Center.
Also around this time, Malone used her earnings to finance the education of two full-time students in every historically Black college and university in America.
By 1930, Malone moved her entire operation to Chicago. Her business began to falter as she was dealing with a divorce and a pair of lawsuits during the Great Depression. In 1943, a lien from the IRS was issued against her and she lost Poro and much of her holdings to the government.
Malone suffered a stroke and died on May 10, 1957 at age 87.
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Little Known Black History Fact: Annie Malone was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
