Nancy Green
Personal Information
Born: 1834
Died: 1923
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
Unknown
"None found"
— Nancy Green
Professional Life
Field of Study: Advertising figure
Institution/Corporation: Quaker Oats; PepsiCo; Pearl Milling Company
Degrees & Memberships: None found
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1893 Medal & Certificate for Shopwmanship, Chicago World's Fair
Achievements: was "Aunt Jemima"; was one of the founding members of Olivet Baptist Church, the oldest active Black Baptist church in Chicago, was a minister and a philanthropist;
was born a slave
had 2 or 4 children (records are unclear)
has been variously described as a servant, nurse, nanny, housekeeper, an cook for Samuel Johnson Walker and his wife Amanda & helped raised their children-1 son was a district judge & another was a doctor
by the end of the Civil War she had lost her husband & all her children
age fifty-nine, Green made her debut as Aunt Jemima at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, beside the "world's largest flour barrel" (twenty-four feet high), where she operated a pancake-cooking display, sang songs, and promoted the product; refused to sign a "lifetime contract" to portray Aunt Jemima & only held the position for 20 years
refused to cross the ocean to attend the 1900 Paris exhibition & was replaced
the controversy over who perfected the pancake recipe, Green or chefs at Quaker Oats or Chris Rutt & Charles Underwood (Rutt & Underwood founded the Pearl Milling Company, the new name for Aunt Jemima, in 1889) continues
according to the 1910 census, she was still employed as a residential housekeeper at age 76
was an advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for the black population
was buried in a pauper's grave & it's location was unknown until 2015 when a campaign was started to erect a headstone & give her the recognition she deserved; when Quaker Oats was approached for a contribution "Their corporate response was that Nancy Green and Aunt Jemima aren't the same – that Aunt Jemima is a fictitious character" [Wikipedia]
a headstone was erected in 2020 & paid for with private donations
2020 PepsiCo the parent company of Quaker Oats announced they were discontinuing the Aunt Jemima brand because it was considered racist
rumor had it she died a millionaire as a result of being Aunt Jemima but the truth is she was paid a paltry sum & continued to work as a domestic until a few years prior to her death
the stories she told of her life as a slave during her publicity appearances were a combination of her real life & stories written by a white, southern representative of the Quaker Oats company
her last name has also been reported as Hughes or Hayes, with the later being the name of her husband