Aunt Jemima: Great Woman Erased by Political Correctness
The name and brand of Aunt Jemima was a tribute to a wonderful black woman’s gifts and talents.
Now because of political correctness nonsense future generations will never know this beautiful woman existed. What a shame.
A Facebook post has been widely circulated:
“The world knew her as ‘Aunt Jemima’ but her given name was Nancy Green and she was a true American success story. She was born a slave in 1834 Montgomery County, KY. and became a wealthy superstar in the advertising world, as its first living trademark. Green was 56-yrs old when she was selected as spokesperson for a new ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour and made her debut in 1893 at a fair and exposition in Chicago. She demonstrated the pancake mix and served thousands of pancakes, and became an immediate star. She was a good storyteller, her personality was warm and appealing, and her showmanship was exceptional. Her exhibition booth drew so many people that special security personnel were assigned to keep the crowds moving. Nancy Green was signed to a lifetime contract, traveled on promotional tours all over the country, and was extremely well paid. Her financial freedom and stature as a national spokesperson enabled her to become a leading advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for all Americans. She maintained her job until her death in 1923, at age 89. This was a remarkable woman, and sadly she has been ERASED by politics. I wanted you to know and remind you in this cancel culture time period.”
~ Cindy Sweatman Facebook post
Some fact checkers say that Nancy Green was not well paid and died in poverty. I truly do not know whether she was rich or not. She certainly was a neat and happy soul and a Christian woman.
Nancy Green was a philanthropist and ministry leader. She was one of the founding members of Olivet Baptist Church, the oldest active Black Baptist church in Chicago. “It was the largest African American church in the United States and was, during the 1920s, the largest Protestant church in the world. As the oldest Black Baptist Church in Chicago, Olivet is often called the “mother” church of other Black Baptist congregations. Olivet Baptist was an active station on the Underground Railroad and later the headquarters of the Peace and Protective Association, an organization that worked to maintain and restore peace to Chicago during the Race Riots of 1919.”
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“News stories about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago described Green standing next to the world’s largest flour barrel, making pancakes and telling romanticized stories about her days as a slave in the South.”
Saturday Evening Post
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“It was Charles C. Jackson, a food wholesaler, who discovered Green, in 1890. She was a cook for the family of Charles M. Walker Jr., who would become a Chicago alderman, corporation counsel and judge.
Most biographies say that Green was born into slavery on March 4, 1834, in Mt. Sterling, Ky., in Montgomery County, east of Lexington, although the 1900 census lists her year of birth as 1854. (Official birth certificates for slaves were rarely filed.) She won her freedom and was hired as a nanny and housekeeper by Walker’s father, who transplanted the family to Chicago.
Green helped care for Walker’s sons, Charles and Samuel, and her pancakes were said to be popular among the family’s friends.”
Several obituaries claim it was Green who originally came up with the pancake recipe that would go on to be sold as the Aunt Jemima mix, but this is likely not true.
Eventually, word reached executives at the Pearl Milling Company about Nancy Green’s legendary pancakes and ultimately hired Green to make pancakes and portray the Aunt Jemima character at the 1893 World’s Fair. Pearl Milling and the Aunt Jemima brand eventually came under the Quaker Oats Company who changed the name back to Pearl Milling in June 2020.
“After the fair, Green was offered a lifetime contract with the pancake company and traveled the country on promotional tours until she died at the age of 89 after being hit by a car while walking on 46th Street(Chicago).”
~ NPR
A lady who NPR says has been fascinated by the life story of Nancy Green, Sherry Williams, placed a headstone on Green’s unmarked grave in 2020 to help preserve the memory of the real woman as the character she portrayed fades away. The fact that her grave was unmarked does suggest that Nancy Green died without enjoying the riches her fame should have brought her.
However, “Romi Crawford, who researches African American visual imagery at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said Green had social and economic mobility not many African American women had at the time, which she leveraged to further the work of her church.”
“That is absolutely the irony, that she is playing a role: a derogatory type and caricature of Black women,” she said. “In actuality, this is a Black woman who was moving around the country and, in a way, the world. … Her actual mobility in so many ways defied the stasis of the problematic caricature-type.”
~ NPR
I wish we could ask Nancy Green how she felt about being Aunt Jemima. I have a feeling she wouldn’t change a thing but I guess we will never know for sure.