Research the life of Madam C.J. Walker. You'll need to have a good understanding of her entire life, from her childhood in Louisiana, to the rise of her business in the early 1900s, to her life in New York just before her death. You can use both online sources that contain biographical information, and actual biographies about her life.
Create a thesis or a focus for the essay. This can be as simple as deciding to write a biographical essay about her entire life, or you can focus the topic to just one area. You can, for example, focus on how she created the hair care product that propelled her to start a business, or you could focus on her early life in the cotton fields of Louisiana and Mississippi. Once you have a thesis or focus, you can narrow down your research material to just those passages that will help you.
Create an outline of your essay, writing down the central theme of each paragraph as one short sentence. Make the sentences sequential and leave space between them, if you are doing this on paper, so that you can go back and add new lines later. Make a note next to each line telling yourself which piece of research material contains the information needed for the paragraph. Doing this will prevent you from having to reread all of your research information to find the one paragraph that discusses the topic you need.
Write the first paragraph of the Madam C.J. Walker essay. This is an introductory paragraph that needs to explain who Madam C.J. Walker is, why she is important and what aspect of her life the essay will focus on. You can also include other important information, like the importance of good hair care products or the difficulties that African-American businesswomen had in the early 1900s, if your essay will focus on that topic.
Write each paragraph of the essay based on the idea for the paragraph in your outline. Any borrowed ideas or conclusions need to have the name of the document or book, and the page where the information was included after the ideas in parentheses. Any direct quotes need to be placed in quotation marks and include the reference where you got the quote. You also need to put any quotes longer than two lines on the page into block form, creating a second indent for the quote, and then switching back to your normal indentation afterward.
Write your conclusion at the end of the essay. This paragraph will tie together the different strands of the essay to form a description of your intended thesis or focus.
Add a list of your references at the end of the essay, or on a separate "Works Cited" page. Make sure you are following the citation rules for whatever style is required.