DEMOCRATS ARE ERASING FOND MEMORIES OF AUNT JEMIMA

 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. 

Lillian Richard a cook in Texas was the second Aunt Jemima from 1923 to 1948. Born in 1891 she suffered a stroke in 1948 that ended her career as Aunt Jemima. She died in 1956. 

Anna Robinson was the third Aunt Jemima who appeared at the Chicago's World Fair in 1933. Born in 1899 she was widow just like Lilian Richard. She appeared in New York in her portly stature of 350 pounds. She was more of a celebrity than Richard and her likeness appeared on pancake mix packages and made enough money to provide for her children, purchasing a 22-room house that she turned into a boarding house while living in a four-flat apartment in Washington Park with her children & grandchildren in 1939. 

ANNA ROBINSON

Rosa Washington Riles became the fourth Aunt Jemima and third person whose likeness appeared on pancake mix boxes and syrup bottles in 1940 until 1948. She was a cook in the home of a Quaker Oats executive and was asked to represent the Aunt Jemima image. She died in 1969. An annual breakfast is held in her honor.

Anna Short Harrington - began her career as Aunt Jemima in 1935 and continued to play the role until 1954. She was born in 1897 in Marlboro County, South Carolina. The Short family lived on the Pegues Place plantation as sharecroppers. In 1927, she moved to Syracuse, New York. Quaker Oats discovered her cooking pancakes at the 1935 New York State Fair. Harrington died in Syracuse in 1955. 

Edith Wilson became the face of Aunt Jemima on radio, television, and in personal appearances, from 1948 to 1966. Wilson was the first Aunt Jemima to appear in television commercials. She was born in 1896 in Louisville, Kentucky. Wilson was a classic blues singer and actress in Chicago, New York, and London. She appeared on radio in The Great Gildersleeve, on radio and television in Amos 'n' Andy, and on film in To Have and Have Not (1944). On March 31, 1981, she died in Chicago. 

EDITH WILSON

Rosie Lee Moore Hall - portrayed Aunt Jemima from 1950 until her death in 1967. Hall was born on June 22, 1899, in Robertson County, Texas. She worked for Quaker Oats in the company's Oklahoma advertising department until she answered their search for a new Aunt Jemima. She suffered a heart attack on her way to church and died on February 12, 1967. She was buried in the family plot in the Colony Cemetery near Wheelock, Texas. Hall was the last "living" Aunt Jemima. On May 7, 1988, her grave was declared an historical landmark. 

Aylene Lewis - portrayed Aunt Jemima at the Disneyland Aunt Jemima's Pancake House, a popular eating place at the park on New Orleans Street in Frontierland, from 1957 until her death in 1964. Lewis became well known posing for pictures with visitors and serving pancakes to dignitaries, such as Indian Prime Minister Nehru. She also developed a close relationship with Walt Disney. 

AYLENE LEWIS, Disneyland, 1957