Often called the “Angel of the Rockies,” Clara Brown reflects the richness of the African-American experience. She faced enormous challenges and reached wonderful heights in her nearly eighty-five years. Turning her back on her life in slavery, she looked west for the children she had lost. She then became one of the first African-American women to settle in Colorado. Clara was skillful in business ventures and investments that earned her thousands of dollars. She also gained a reputation for community care. She helped people of all races, but she worked especially hard to bring black people out of poverty and enslavement.

Enslaved

 Clara Brown was probably born into slavery in Virginia around 1800.  Wealthy white southerners who “owned” Clara often auctioned her to the highest bidder as if she were a horse to be sold.  Each time she was bought, she would have to move, sometimes even to a different state.   Clara married when she was eighteen, and later gave birth to four children.  Tragically, all of her children and her husband were sold to different people across the country. She vowed to work for the rest of her life to reunite her shattered family.

Clara worked as a domestic servant until 1856 when her “owner” at the time, George Brown, died.  Fortunately, his family helped Clara achieve her freedom, and she could begin the search for her missing children.

 Heading West

Hearing that one of her daughters, Eliza, may have moved to the West, Clara headed in that direction.  She had money to travel, but black people at the time were forbidden from buying stagecoach tickets.  Instead, she convinced a group of prospectors to take her with them.  On their way to Colorado in search of gold, she would work as their cook. The journey was long and rough and Clara had to walk alongside the wagon for much of the nearly 700-mile trek.

 Once in Denver, Clara was unable to find her daughter. She decided to travel with gold seekers to Central City in the summer of 1859.  The town was made up of gold mines, small stores, saloons, and shacks for miners and their families.  Clara was one of the first African-American women to reach the gold-mining towns of Colorado.

Making Strides

Clara’s two most important goals were to make enough money to live independently and to find her family. She figured that accomplishing the first goal would help her with the second.  Clara started by opening a small laundry service for the gold miners of Central City.  The business was very successful, and she began saving her money.  To make even more, she cooked, cleaned, and catered special engagements. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, when most black people were just gaining their legal freedom, Clara had saved ten thousand dollars.  This was an astonishing amount of money.  With this wealth, she invested in mining claims and Colorado real estate. She could now support herself very well.

 A Hub of the Community

 Like most of the small black population of Colorado, “Aunt” Clara saw the importance of living within a strong community.  In Central City, her business and her home became community hubs. Sick or injured miners, regardless of race, would often turn to her for help.  Clara gave them a place to recover and cared for them until they were able to return to work. She also helped those who were homeless and needed a place to stay.  Pregnant women in town often wanted Clara to help deliver their babies. She provided many of these services for free to those who could not afford them.

Clara Brown was a Presbyterian, but she did not discriminate against other faiths. She gave money and time to four different churches in town.  As she had done in Denver, she also helped start the first Sunday school program in town. She used her home as the classroom.  While her faith was strong and her finances secure, Clara was still missing something…her family.

Searching for Her Family

 Once she had saved enough money, Clara Brown began the hunt for her family.  She traveled to Kentucky and Tennessee in search of her loved ones.  Though she did not find her children or husband, she did not return empty-handed. Clara discovered other relatives on her trip, and she paid for them to move to Colorado.  She also helped other freed blacks to move here for many years.  When they arrived, she helped them find jobs in their new home.

In 1879, Clara acted as an official representative of Colorado Governor Pitkin to Kansas.  Many black people had escaped from the South and moved to black homesteads in Kansas.  This was sometimes called the “Black Exodus,” and these people were called “Exodusters.”  Governor Pitkin sent Clara Brown to Kansas to try to persuade some of them to move to Colorado.  Many jobs were available in Colorado due to mining strikes and labor shortages.  Clara delivered Governor Pitkin’s invitation and donated some of her own money to support the new black communities.

In spite of all her successes, disaster was just around the corner.  In 1864, a great flood swept through Denver and destroyed much of the town. The papers proving that Clara Brown owned property there were lost. In 1873, Clara’s home and several of her other properties went up in flames in a huge fire in Central City. Clara now had nothing to show for all her years of work, but people in the community came to her rescue. Someone even set her up in a cottage in Denver.

Triumph of Love

 In 1882, when Clara was about 80 years old, good news brought fresh hope of finding her daughter. She received word that a black woman named Eliza lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This woman was born about the same time as Clara’s child, Eliza. She had been taken from her mother and sold to another family, and she even looked a bit like Clara. With money from her friends, “Aunt” Clara immediately traveled to Iowa to find out if this person could indeed be her Eliza. They met in Iowa, and the two joyfully discovered that they were in fact mother and daughter!  The story of their reunion was widely published in newspapers in Colorado and throughout the Midwest. After forty-seven years of separation and searching, Clara’s dream had finally come true. Eliza was the only child Clara ever found, and the two returned to Colorado where they lived until Clara’s death.

 Immortalized

 “Aunt” Clara Brown passed away in her sleep just three years after being reunited with her daughter.  Crowds flocked to her funeral.  The mayor of Denver and the governor of Colorado even attended the ceremony. The Colorado Pioneer Association made Clara Brown their first African-American member, and funded her entire funeral.  Clara Brown’s name and reputation have lived on in the years since her death.  A chair in the Central City Opera House was installed in her name in the 1930s. This is an honor reserved for well-respected community members. In 1977, Clara’s life and achievements were commemorated with a stained glass portrait of her in the state capitol building. She also has a plaque on the St. James Methodist Church in Central City, which explains that her home served as the first church in the area. An opera about her life, called Gabriel’s Daughter, debuted in Central City in 2003.

 People say that Clara Brown went from being a slave to being an angel, but neither word is accurate.  She was an experienced black woman who lived with purpose and passion. She recognized the power of community and in building relationships. She found her way out of a life of enslavement to establish a new life in Colorado.  Her success in business gave her the chance to share her wealth with friends and family.  She worked to develop the black community in Colorado.  The discovery of her daughter, Eliza, turned her lifelong dream into reality. In her own time of crisis, favors and kindness were lovingly returned to her.

 

 BY SHANTI ZAID, Colorado Historical Society, Clara Brown intern

https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2017/aunt_clars_brown.pdf

 

 Inducted in the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1987.

 

Further Reading

 Baker, Roger. Clara: An Ex-slave in Gold Rush Colorado. Central City: Black Hawk Publishing Co., 2003.

Bruyn, Kathleen. “Aunt” Clara Brown: Story of a Black Pioneer. Boulder: Pruett Publishing Co., 1970.

 Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, et al (eds.) Perseverance. African Americans: Voices of Triumph Series. TimeLife Custom Publishing, 1993.

 Lowery, Linda. Aunt Clara Brown: Official Pioneer. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1999.

Lowery, Linda. The Story of Aunt Clara Brown. New York: Random House, 2002.

 

 

Indra Nooyi  (1955-)

Indra Nooyi, a business leader and strategic thinker, is widely considered to be one of the top CEOs in the world for her leadership of the global behemoth PepsiCo for 12 years. She was the first woman of color and first immigrant to head a Fortune 50 company. Under her leadership, the company increased its profitability while also working to improve environmental sustainability and the healthiness of its food offerings. Nooyi is also a major philanthropist. Her donation to her alma mater Yale School of Management makes her the school’s largest alumni donor and the first woman to have endowed a Chair at a top business school.

Indra Krisnamurthy was born in Madras (now called Chennai), India, on October 28, 1955. She grew up in a close family with two siblings, her parents, and her grandparents. Her father was a bank official, and her mother was a house wife. Nooyi’s family was middle class and, like most of their neighbors, devout Hindus and relatively conservative. Nooyi remains close to her family. Her mother  has lived with her in the US and features prominently in Nooyi’s stories. Her sister Chandrika is also a successful businesswoman as well as a Grammy-nominated musical artist. A brilliant student in high school, Nooyi developed interests considered unusual for girls in that time and place. In addition to excelling at her studies in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, she competed on a cricket team and played guitar in a female rock band at Madras Christian College, from which she graduated in 1974 at the age of 18. She earned a spot at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where she received her MBA in 1976.

After graduation, Nooyi began her career as a business strategist. Her first job was at a British textile firm. She then moved to a product manager role at Johnson & Johnson in Mumbai. There she was charged with introducing menstrual pads, Stayfree, to India. This was a challenging task since India banned  direct advertising for such products. Nooyi devised a successful workaround, directly marketing the products to female college students.

She became convinced, however, that she needed a more global business education and applied to Yale School of Management after reading about it in a magazine. Somewhat to her surprise— since “it was unheard of for a good, conservative, south Indian Brahmin girl” to go overseas on her own—her parents supported her decision when she was accepted. Nooyi arrived in Connecticut in 1978 determined to succeed, describing her identity as an immigrant woman as her  “biggest internal driver.”

Nooyi worked as a receptionist to make ends meet at Yale.  After graduating in 1980 at age 24 with a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management, she worked at Boston Consulting Group as a strategy consultant for six years. She married fellow consultant Raj K Nooyi in 1981. The two remain married and have two daughters.

In 1986, Nooyi moved to the telecommunications company Motorola, where she worked first as an internal consultant in the automotive team before pivoting to broader corporate planning.  In 1990, she switched firms again, this time to the Swiss machinery firm ABB where she led corporate strategy, including integrating diverse product divisions around a coherent overall plan. She developed a reputation as a strategic long-term thinker and a skillful communicator, and just 14 years after graduating from Yale she was wooed simultaneously for executive-level posts at two top global companies: PepsiCo and General Electric. She chose Pepsi, reportedly because the CEO there convinced her she would be able to exert real influence.

In 1994, at age 38, Nooyi began working at Pepsi, the company for which she would become famous for leading. Unlike many of her predecessors in the top job, she never worked in sales, instead focused from the beginning on long-term planning.  As she rose through the ranks at Pepsi, she played an instrumental role in shaping global strategy, including through acquiring and selling off subsidiary companies. She led the sale of Yum! Brands (which includes restaurants KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut) in 1997 and the acquisitions of Tropicana in 1998,Quaker Oats in 2001, and Gatorade, also in 2001. These acquisitions consolidated profits and tightened focus at PepsiCo to the core business of beverages and snacks.

In 2001, Nooyi was promoted to President and Chief Financial Officer. She pushed PepsiCo to adjust its business to meet what she saw as shifting consumer demand for healthier eating. She also pushed PepsiCo to acknowledge the need to be a good corporate citizen on  environmental issues, coining the term “Performance with a Purpose” as Pepsi’s new mantra. Named CEO in 2006, Nooyi led Pepsi for 12 years, during which time the company’s annual net profit more than doubled, growing from $2.7 billion to $6.5 billion. Her strategic guidance was largely a success, with Pepsi offering more low-calorie options and cutting the corporate carbon footprint through leaner packaging and the use of renewable energy.

A third pillar of “Performance with a Purpose” focused on retaining talent at the company, including through paid parental leave for men and women alike. Nooyi spoke candidly during her years as CEO of the unrealistic expectations placed on women executives who are also caregivers. She has acknowledged that her own support system included her mother, husband, and staff at PepsiCo. Nooyi instructed staff to give her daughter permission to play a video game when she called the office only after confirming that her homework and chores were completed.

In a recently published book, My Life in Full (2021), Nooyi focuses on the topic of work-life balance, admitting that there were many times when she felt that she fell short as a mother. On Valentine’s Day 2022, she published a note to her husband Raj sharing credit for her successes with him: “the truth is, there is no such thing as balancing work and family. It's a constant juggling act. And many times, it's the people around us — like our life partners — who make this juggling possible. It's a reminder that family isn't female. Family is family.”

After retiring from Pepsi, Nooyi continues to serve on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards. Her legacy as a brilliant thinker and corporate strategist will likely continue to grow.

Works Cited

“Pepsi CEO is Now Yale Management School’s ‘Most Generous’ Alumni Donor,” by Robert Hackett, FORTUNE magazine, January 12, 2016.  Accessed February 8, 2022. https://fortune.com/2016/01/12/pepsi-yale-alumni-donor-nooyi/

“Companies Like Ours Are Little Republics,” by Andrew Edgecliff-Johnson, Financial Times, October 22, 2021. Accessed February 12, 2022. https://www.ft.com/content/3c59db07-4516-427e-abe7-600f8bab3751

“PepsiCo’s CEO Was Right. Now What?” by Jennifer Reingold, Fortune, June 5, 2015. Accessed February 16, 2022.  https://fortune.com/2015/06/05/pepsico-ceo-indra-nooyi/

“Snacks for a Fat Planet: PepsiCo Takes Stock of the Obesity Epidemic,” by John Seabrook,The New Yorker,  May 9, 2011. Accessed February 8, 2022. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/snacks-for-a-fat-planet

“Why Pepsi CEO Indra K. Nooyi Can’t Have it All,” by Conor Friedersdorf. The Atlantic, July 1, 2014. Accessed February 8, 2022.  https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/why-pepsico-ceo-indra-k-nooyi-cant-have-it-all/373750/

“Profile of Indra Nooyi,” Financial Times, November 6, 2010. Accessed February 12, 2022.

How to Cite this page

MLA – Johnson, Arbora. “Indra Nooyi.” National Women’s History Museum, 2022. Date accessed.

Chicago – Johnson, Arbora. “Indra Nooyi.” National Women’s History Museum. 2022. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/indra-nooyi 

Image Credit: Jeff Bedford, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12566849

 

Brownie Wise    (1913-1992)

Brownie Wise was a self-made woman who revolutionized marketing tactics and had a knack for motivating others. She introduced the now popular household item, Tupperware, to the market. A pioneering businesswoman when there were not many women in business, her career serves as an inspiration for generations of women.

Brownie Mae Humphrey was born in Buford, Georgia on May 25, 1913. Her father was a plumber and her mother, Rose Stroud Humphrey, was a hat maker. Her parents divorced when Wise was young, and her father left the picture. As a single parent, Rose got a job as an organizer for the hat makers’ union. The job required extensive travel, meaning Wise spent months or years at a time away from her mother. Wise grew up with her Aunt Pearl, a dressmaker near Atlanta, and an extended group of cousins. Wise was a good student but was more interested in fashion and boys than the classroom. Her cousins recalled Wise was very persuasive, a skill she would use successfully in her career.

Very few records survive from Wise’s teenage years. Relatives report she left school after eighth grade. She supposedly joined her mother to work for the union and gave speeches at union meetings. At 18, she briefly attended a YWCA camp for girls aspiring to have business careers. She dreamed of becoming a writer and illustrator.

In 1936, Wise won a contest to paint a mural at the Texas Centennial in Dallas. While there she met Robert W. Wise, who was in charge of the Ford Motor Company’s exhibit. The couple married on December 15, 1936 and quickly moved to Detroit where Robert worked as a machinist and opened a small machine shop. Their only son, Jerry, was born in May 1938. Robert turned out to be a violent drunk and the couple divorced in 1941. Wise kept Robert’s last name and never remarried. Like her own mother, she was now a single parent.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Wise frequently contributed to the Detroit News “Experience” column, a readers’ forum. Wise, writing as “Hibiscus,” crafted stories of her life that were a combination of wishful thinking and make believe. Beyond writing, she began working briefly in an ad agency and as a salesperson in a clothing store. During World War II, she worked as an executive assistant for Bendix Aviation. To make extra money after the war, she and her mother began selling Stanley Home Products at home parties; part of her sales pitch was a demonstration of how the products worked. Even though she became one of the top Stanley salespeople, Stanley’s founder told her that as a woman she had no place in management. She refused to accept that, and switched to selling a new product: Tupperware.

While Tupperware is everywhere now, it was not selling well in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Earl Tupper, the founder, had introduced the innovation to the market, but most people were not used to having consumer products made of plastic (which was associated with commercial and military products). Tupperware was also only in stores, where product demonstrations were impossible. Wise, who saw promise in the product, began selling it with her mother in the late 1940s. The two began a direct selling business called Patio Parties. She adopted the home party technique she used at Stanley, throwing parties and demonstrating Tupperware mainly to women. She recruited dealers and managers and was soon selling more Tupperware than any store. Her success caught the attention of Tupper and convinced him that home parties were the best sales tactic.

In 1951, Tupper recruited Wise to develop the party plan model and made her Vice President of Marketing. This job title made Wise one of the few female executives at the time. She took charge and centered the department around the home party plan. After Wise took over marketing, millions of Tupperware began flying off the shelves. Tupper took his product out of stores and began selling it exclusively through the home party plan. By 1954, there were approximately 20,000 people (including men and non-white women) in the network of dealers, distributors, and managers. All were private contractors. Many cited the opportunity to make extra money as well as Wise’s self-help rhetoric as reasons they got involved.

Now based in Miami, where the family moved in 1950 after Jerry got sick, Wise made Florida Tupperware’s salesforce center. She started a “Tupperware Jubilee”—a four-day sales meeting that mixed learning about the product with entertainment. She proposed moving the company’s headquarters to Kissimmee, FL and oversaw the design and construction of the campus. Wise also became the public face of the company, appearing on talk shows and magazine covers and serving as an honored guest or invited speaker at national sales and marketing conferences. She was usually the only woman in attendance. She was the first woman to appear on the cover of Business Week.

While Tupper was initially ok with this arrangement, he became jealous of Wise and the credit she was receiving for Tupperware’s success. The two also fought a lot. In January 1958, the Board of Directors unceremoniously fired Wise. She filed a $1.6 million law suit against Tupperware for conspiracy and breach of contract, but settled out of court for a year’s salary (about $30,000). She had no stock. Shortly after her firing, Earl Tupper sold the company. Wise saw no money from the sale.

Wise never achieved the same success. She co-founded three direct-sales cosmetic companies, served as the president of Vivane Woodard Cosmetics (1960-2), consulted for a few companies, and dabbled in real estate in the Kissimmee area. She was also active in the church and worked as an artist in clay and textiles. After years of declining health, Wise died at 79 on September 24, 1992.

While she and the company parted poorly, Tupperware now includes Wise and her contributions in the company’s official history; the company also donated $200,000 so an Orlando, FL park could be renamed Brownie Wise Park. The home party model she pioneered at Tupperware not only ensured the success of that company but it also inspired hundreds of others. Her techniques serve as the basis for the “side hustle” direct sales businesses that are now so central, particularly for women.

Works Cited

“Brownie Wise,” American Experience, PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-wise/

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0509

Kat Eschner, “The Story of Brownie Wise, the Ingenious Marketer Behind the Tupperware Party,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 10, 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/story-brownie-wise-ingenious-marketer-behind-tupperware-party-180968658/.

“Wise, Brownie,” Detroit Historical Society, https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/wise-brownie

How to Cite this page

MLA – Rothberg, Emma. “Brownie Wise.” National Women’s History Museum, 2022. Date accessed.

Chicago – Rothberg, Emma. “Brownie Wise.” National Women’s History Museum. 2022. id=33209984www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/brownie-wise.

Image Credit: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?cur