Nancy Green

Portrait of Nancy Green as "Aunt Jemima" by A. B. Frost

Nancy Green (November 17, 1834 – September 23, 1923) was a storyteller, cook, activist, and one of the first African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark as "Aunt Jemima".^[1]

Biography

Green was born into slavery in 1834 in Montgomery County, Kentucky. She was hired in 1890^[2] by the R.T. Davis Milling Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, to represent "Aunt Jemima", an advertising person named after a song from a minstrel show.^[1] Davis Milling had recently acquired the formula to a ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour from St. Joseph Gazette editor Chris L. Rutt and Charles Underwood and were looking to employ an African-American woman as a Mammy archetype to promote their new product.^[3] In 1893 Green was introduced as Aunt Jemima at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, where it was her job to operate a pancake-cooking display. Her amicable personality and talent as a cook helped establish a successful showing of the product, for which she received a medal and certificate from the Expo officials.^[1] After the Expo, Green was offered a lifetime contract to adopt the Aunt Jemima moniker and promote the pancake mix. This marked the beginning of a major promotional push by the company that included thousands of personal appearances and Aunt Jemima merchandising. Nancy Green maintained her job with Davis Milling (which was renamed Aunt Jemima Mills Company in 1914)^[4] until 1923, when she died.

Philanthropy

Her career allowed Green the financial freedom to become an activist and engage in antipoverty programs.^[5]

Death

In 1923 Nancy Green died after being struck by a car.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Nancy Green, the original "Aunt Jemima"". The African American Registry. 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-07-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20070704164012/http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1287/Nancy_Green_the_original_Aunt_Jemima. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
2. ^ This is disputed, some sources say 1893
3. ^ Manning, Maurice M. (1998). Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 0813918111. 
4. ^ A History of Northwest Missouri Edited by Walter Williams - Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1915
5. ^ Roberts, Diane (1994). The Myth of Aunt Jemima: Representations of Race and Region. Routledge. ISBN 0415049180.