Nancy (Hayes) Green (1834 - 1923)

Born 4 Mar 1834 in Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky, USA

Died 30 Aug 1923 at age 89 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA

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Biography

Nancy (Hayes) Green is Notable.

Nancy Hayes was the first model to portray the Aunt Jemima character, and became the first living trademark.

Nancy Green was born a slave on 4 March 1834 near Mt. Sterling in Montgomery County, Kentucky ^{[1] [2]}

Family

Nancy married George Green. They had 4 children. None seem to have survived her. In the 1900 census she is found living in Chicago in the household of Nelson Hays. He was born in North Carolina but his wife Mamie, age 29 was born in Kentucky. It is more than likely that Nancy was Mamie's aunt. She continued to live with the Hayes until her death. Leroy (or Luroy) Hayes, son of Nelson and Mayme Hayes, provided the data on Nancy's death certificate. ^{[3] [4] [5]} At the time of her death, she was living with her great nephew, Luroy Hayes, who arranged for her burial at Oak Woods Cemetery. She did not originally get a headstone, but Bronzeville Historical Society President Sherry Williams was trying to get her one as of 2020, and searched for Luroy's descendants to get permission to give her one.

Aunt Jemima

She was hired in 1890. This is disputed, some sources say 1893 by the R.T. Davis Milling Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, to represent "Aunt Jemima", an advertising character named after a song from a minstrel show. ^[6] 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. ^[7]

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 for the Walker family, whose children grew up to become Chicago Circuit Judge Charles M. Walker and Dr. Samuel Walker ^[8] established a successful showing of the product, for which she received a medal and certificate from the Expo officials. ^[9] 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) ^[10] until her death in 1923; she was still working as Aunt Jemima at the time.

A lawsuit claims that Nancy Green's heirs as well as other heirs from the other women used as Aunt Jemima models deserve $2 billion and a share of future revenue from the sales of popular demand. The federal lawsuit was filed in Chicago by another model (Anna Short Harrington)'s grandsons who claim that she and Green were the roots in creating the recipe for the nation's first self-proclaimed pancake mix. It also states that Green was the originator and came up with the idea of adding powdered milk for extra flavor in the pancakes. Quaker Oats, who is the current owner of the brand, says this image of Aunt Jemima was in fact fake and never real claiming that there are no trace of contracts between the women who displayed as Aunt Jemima models and their bosses. ^{[11] [12]} The suit was dismissed as the heirs failed to prove that they were related to the woman who posed as Aunt Jemima. ^{[13] [14]}

Church organizing and philanthropy

Green was one of the organizers of the Olivet Baptist Church. ^[15] Her career allowed Green the financial freedom to become an activist and engage in antipoverty programs. ^[16] She was one of the first African-American missionary workers. She used her stature as a spokesperson to become a leading advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for individuals in Chicago.

Death

Green died on August 30, 1923, in Chicago when a car collided with a truck and flipped over onto the sidewalk where she was standing. ^{[17] [18]} She is buried in the northeast quadrant of Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery. ^[19] The famous image of Aunt Jemima was based on the real image of Nancy Green, who was known as a magnificent cook, an attractive woman of outgoing nature and friendly personality, an original painting of which sold for $9,030 at MastroNet. The painting was rendered by A. B. Frost, who is now well known as one of the great illustrators of the Golden Age of American Illustration. ^[20]

Death Certificate

Illinois Death Certificate. Name: Nancy Green Birth Date: 4 Mar 1834 Birth Place: Kentucky Death Date: 30 Aug 1923 Death Place: Chicago, Cook Co , Illinois Burial Date: 1 Sep 1923 Cemetery Name: Oakwoods Death Age: 89 Occupation: Housewife Race: Black Marital Status: W Gender: Female Street address: 1443 Prairie Ave Father Birth Place: USA Mother Birth Place: USA FHL Film Number: 1877397 ^[21]

Grave Marker

'Nancy Green (the Original Aunt Jemima) ; Find A Grave: Memorial #95732637 Created by: suef Added: 21 Aug 2012 (ID number 95732637) SPONSORED BY David Eastburn; date accessed: 17 June 2020 ^[22]

Lawsuits and Rebranding due to Racial Stereotype

Lawsuit
In 2014, a lawsuit was filed against PepsiCo. The suit claimed that Green and Anna S. Harrington (the black woman who portrayed the character of Aunt Jemima starting in 1935) were exploited by the company and cheated out of the monetary compensation they were promised. The plaintiffs were two of Harrington's great- grandsons, and they sought a 2 billion dollar settlement for descendants of Green and Harrington. ^[23] The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice and without leave to amend on February 18, 2015. "'Aunt Jemima' Heirs' $3B Royalties Suit Against Pepsi Axed". ^[24]

Rebranding
Aunt Jemima Brand to Change Name and Image Over ‘Racial Stereotype’ Quaker Oats, which owns the 131-year-old brand, said it would retire the brand as it worked “to make progress toward racial equality.” ^[25]

By Tiffany Hsu - June 17, 2020Updated 4:32 p.m. ET

Aunt Jemima, the popular syrup and pancake-mix brand that marketed itself with imagery of the slavery-era South, will get a new name and image after Quaker Oats, its parent company, acknowledged that its origins were “based on a racial stereotype.”

On Wednesday, the company, owned by PepsiCo, said it was taking “a hard look at our portfolio of brands” as it worked “to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives.” Packaging changes, first reported by NBC News, will appear toward the end of the year, with the name change coming soon after.

The Aunt Jemima brand, founded in 1889, was built on images of a black female character that promoted a false and nostalgic view of slavery in the United States. A former slave portrayed the character at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and a white actress known for performing in blackface played Aunt Jemima on a radio series in the 1930s.

In magazine advertisements throughout much of the 20th century, the character was shown serving white families. Aunt Jemima went through several redesigns over the decades. In 1989, Quaker Oats substantially revised the character’s look, adding pearl earrings and a lace collar.

“While work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize those changes are not enough,” said Kristin Kroepfl, Quaker’s chief marketing officer, in a statement.

PepsiCo bought Quaker Oats in 2001, inheriting the Aunt Jemima brand. Ramon Laguarta, the chief executive of PepsiCo, wrote in an article in Fortune this week that “the journey for racial equality has long been part of our company’s DNA.”

Amid the worldwide protests against racism and police brutality prompted by the killing last month in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man who died after being pinned to the ground by a white police officer, many companies have rushed to express solidaritywith the Black Lives Matter movement, often running into accusations of hypocrisy.

PepsiCo was already familiar with the fallout: In 2017, after a backlash, it apologized for running a commercial that showed Kendall Jenner, a white model, delivering a can of Pepsi to a white law enforcement officer at a Black Lives Matter protest.

The Aunt Jemima brand has its roots in a 19th-century blackface minstrel song, “Old Aunt Jemima,” that expressed nostalgia for the South in the slavery era. The character “is commodified racism,” one of “many racialized caricatures” that were “the creation of the white imagination” during the rise of the marketing industry, said Gregory D. Smithers, an American history professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Marketing companies used racism to sell everything from soap, children’s board games and food,” said Mr. Smithers, who wrote a book about the use of racist imagery in popular media. “So ubiquitous did racism become in marketing and popular culture that it naturalized oppression in American society and shaped white privilege in the twentieth century and beyond.”

But now, he said, corporate executives “are doing their projections and the calculations don’t look pretty.”

“We’re in a moment where the rejection of systemic racism is so broad-based — cutting across racial, ethnic, religious, and political lines — that ignoring the politics of the moment would be ethically callous and economically foolish,” he added.

Riché Richardson, an associate professor of African-American literature at Cornell University, said she welcomed the move by Quaker Oats. “I’m hopeful that this is really the gateway for more and more reflection on this topic and the catalyst for increasing change,” she said.

Ms. Richardson, who called for an end to the Aunt Jemima character in a 2015 opinion piece in The New York Times, added that the image is “maybe not as obviously linked to Southern violence, racism and terror as the Confederate flag, but it is still heavily weighted by the history of slavery and Jim Crow.”

She added, “It is a symbol that is rooted in the ‘Mammy’ stereotype, that is premised on notions of black otherness and inferiority, that harkens back to a time when black people were thought of and idealized mainly in relation to servant positions. They were lovable and acceptable as long as they stayed in their place.”

On Monday, the singer Kirby described the history of the brand in a TikTok video that has been viewed more than 1.8 million times. The video, titled “How to Make a Non Racist Breakfast,” ends with her pouring a box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix into a sink.

Nancy Green, the first woman to play the role of Aunt Jemima, was born into slavery in Kentucky in 1834. Quaker Oats bought the brand in 1926 and promoted the character heavily. Working with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the artist N.C. Wyeth created commercial illustrations featuring the character. A white actress, Tess Gardella, who had performed in blackface in the Broadway production of the musical “Show Boat,” played Aunt Jemima on a radio series in the 1930s.

In 1955, Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House opened at Disneyland. Later renamed Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen, it featured an actress costumed in a plaid dress, apron and kerchief who served food, sang and posed for photos with patrons, according to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia in Michigan. (The restaurant became the Magnolia Tree Terrace in 1970.)

Black artists, including Betye Saar, have challenged the character for decades. Ms. Saar’s 1972 mixed-media sculpture, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,” presented a “mammy” figurine armed with a rifle and a hand grenade standing against a backdrop of repeated images of Aunt Jemima’s face. In 1980, in a commentary for National Public Radio, the black writer and culinary historian Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor called on Quaker Oats to retire the character.

Quaker Oats said in its statement that Aunt Jemima’s marketing had “evolved over time,” but that it would consult people in the black community to remake the brand. The company also said it would donate at least $5 million over the next five years “to create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community.”

Sources

1. ↑ Norwalk Reflector-Herald (Norwalk, Ohio); 18 Dec 1923; Mrs Nancy Green (Mrs Aunt Jemima Green) Page: 9 Column: 4
2. ↑ Tom Eblen. "New location fitting for black history museum", Lexington Herald-Leader, February 8, 2012. Retrieved August 8, 2013.
3. ↑ US Census 1900; Chicago Ward 30, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 281; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0891; FHL microfilm: 1240281Nancy Greene age 56
4. ↑ US Census 1910; Chicago Ward 30, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T624_276; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 1313; FHL microfilm: 1374289 Nancy Green, age 75, described as "aunt" resided with the family of Nelson Hayes.
5. ↑ US Census 1920; Chicago Ward 3, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll: T625_313; Page: 5A; Enumeration
6. ↑ "Nancy Green, the Original "Aunt Jemima"". The African American Registry. 2005. Archived from the original on 2017-08-29. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
7. ↑ Manning, Maurice M. (1998). Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 0813918111.
8. ↑ https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2014/03/nancy-green-first-aunt-jemima.html
9. ↑ "Nancy Green, the Original "Aunt Jemima"". The African American Registry. 2005. Archived from the original on 2017-08-29. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
10. ↑ A History of Northwest Missouri edited by Walter Williams, published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1915
11. ↑ Pancake flap: Aunt Jemima heirs seek dough
12. ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/10/06/aunt-jemima-lawsuit/16799923/
13. ↑ https://www.eater.com/2015/2/19/8071729/judge-dismisses-aunt-jemima-heirs-3-billion-lawsuit-against-pepsico
14. ↑ https://www.eater.com/2015/2/19/8071729/judge-dismisses-aunt-jemima-heirs-3-billion-lawsuit-against-pepsico
15. ↑ "'Aunt Jemima' of Pancake Fame is Killed by Auto". Chicago Daily Tribune. September 4, 1923. p. 13.
16. ↑ Roberts, Diane (1994). The Myth of Aunt Jemima: Representations of Race and Region. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04918-0.
17. ↑ "Death Notices". Chicago Daily Tribune. August 31, 1923. p. 10.
18. ↑ "'Aunt Jemima' of Pancake Fame is Killed by Auto". Chicago Daily Tribune. September 4, 1923. p. 13.
19. ↑ Death Notices". Chicago Daily Tribune. August 31, 1923. p. 10.
20. ↑ The Woman Behind Aunt Jemima /scoop.diamondgalleries.com/Home/4/1/73/1016?articleID=42091
21. ↑ Illinois Death Certificate.
22. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 17 June 2020), memorial page for Mrs Nancy Green (4 Mar 1834–30 Aug 1923), Find A Grave: Memorial #95732637, citing Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by suef (contributor 47116378)
23. ↑ "Aunt Jemima Might Have Been Real, and Her Descendants Are Suing for $2 Billion". TakePart. Retrieved 2019-02-27
24. ↑ law360.com
25. ↑ Aunt Jemima Brand To Change Name and Image Over 'racial Stereotype' Tiffany Hsu -https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/business/aunt-jemima-racial-stereotype.html

• FamilySearch
• Mrs Nancy Green (1834-1923) on Find A Grave: Memorial #95732637 retrieved 02 July 2020
• "Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MC-Z12L : 17 March 2018), Nancy Green, 30 Aug 1923; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, source reference , record number , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm .
• "Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MC-Z1PX : 17 March 2018), Nancy Green, 30 Aug 1923; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, source reference , record number , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm .
• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSQP-67N : accessed 2 July 2020), Nancy Greene in household of Nelson Haze, Precinct 2 Lake town Chicago city Ward 30, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 891, sheet 7A, family 127, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,281.
• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK84-YL4 : accessed 2 July 2020), Nancy Green in household of Nelson Hayes, Chicago Ward 30, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1313, sheet 4A, family 69, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 276; FHL microfilm 1,374,289.
• "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJ39-TNM : accessed 2 July 2020), Nancy Green in household of Luroy Hayes, Chicago Ward 3, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States; citing ED 180, sheet 5A, line 49, family 106, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 313; FHL microfilm 1,820,313.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Green
• Turley, Alicestyne. (2020). The real story behind ‘Aunt Jemima,’ and a woman born enslaved in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. For the Lexington Herald-Leader, 25 June 2020. Accessed online
• Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, 31 Aug 1923, Fri, Page 10 Accessed online
• Chicago Tribune Chicago, Illinois 04 Sep 1923, Tue Page 13 Accessed online.
• Nagasawa, Katherine. (2020). The Fight To Commemorate Nancy Green, The Woman Who Played The Original 'Aunt Jemima'. For NPR. 19 June 2020. Accessed online.

Acknowledgements

This profile would not be possible without the assistance of

• Wikipedia Nancy Green [1]
• Kern-Foxworth, Marilyn. 1994. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus: blacks in advertising, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Westport, Conn. u.a: Greenwood Press. p 66,67,107
• McElya, Micki. 2007. Clinging to mammy: the faithful slave in twentieth-century America. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. (Note: this book ignores the death certificate and obituaries for Nancy Green and states she was born in 1844.)
• Stewart, Wyman. From Slave to Legend: Nancy Green. Blog Posted 17th November 2015 on The Writer Interview [2]