Sarah Spencer Washington

2020 marks the 100th year of her starting the Apex News and Hair Company.

In 1913 Sara Spencer Washinton opened a beauty salon right here on Arctic Avenue in Atlantic City. She expanded her business by teaching beauty culture to her salon employees, and to residents by going door-to-door with products she developed herself.
"Madame Washington", as she was widely referred to, noticed the lack of beauty products for African Americans, and founded Apex News & Hair Company in 1920. Her company went on to manufacture more than 70 products sold by nearly 45,000 Apex agents nationwide. Her Apex School of Scientific Beauty Culture became established in 12 US cities, as well as in the Caribbean and South Africa, training some 4,000 people annually.
Madame Washington became one of this country's first female African-American millionaires and in 1997 was inducted into the Atlantic City Women's Hall of Fame.

This mural complements the Black Lives Matter mural, as it resides on a building at the corner of Arctic Avenue & Martin Luther King Blvd.
Visit this mural for yourself and admire BK Foxx's precision and talent for portrait painting. (Atlantic City Arts Foundation)