Recently Quaker Oats announced (February 2021) that it will retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the company recognizes the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.” [U.S. News]
The original "Aunt Jemima" was Nancy Green (1834-1923). She was a former slave, nanny, cook, activist, and the first of many African-American models and performers hired to promote a corporate trademark as "Aunt Jemima". She looked quite different from the modern-day Aunt Jemima we are used to seeing on pancake boxes and syrup bottles.
NY Times ad, 1909
The pancake mix was developed in 1888 by the Pearl Milling Company. The brand has been owned by the Quaker Oats Company since 1926. Nancy Green portrayed Aunt Jemima at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, one of the first Black corporate models in the United States. As of June 2021, the brand will be named after original owners of the pancake mix - Pearl Milling Company.
