Historical Spotlight: Aunt Jemima
I’ve always loved pancakes. My mom would always make me one big fluffy pancake and she would very rarely burn them. Even now that I’m older, I either make pancakes or waffles for breakfast every single weekend as a tradition in my household. Aunt Jemima pancake mix has always been a trusted go-to for perfectly fluffy and golden pancakes. Join me as we shine a historical spotlight on the racial implications of the famous brand.
The popular pancake mix got its start in the late 1800’s when Chris Rutt and Charles G. Underwood founded the Pearl Milling Company in St. Joseph, Missouri. They developed a fast self-rising pancake mix that originally incorporated flour, lime, and salt. Corn sugar and condensed sweet milk were later added as ingredients to the recipe.
The initial product packaging had the Pearl Milling Company logo and the image of a smiling Black woman until it was later changed to Aunt Jemima. The name and image of Aunt Jemima came from the complex history of American slavery and minstrel shows. The name was inspired by a minstrel song created in 1875 called “Old Aunt Jemima”. Similarly, the image of the woman was in the likeness of a “mammy”, a popular trope of an older, enslaved Black woman who cooked and cleaned for her white owners and was content with her status in life.
Aunt Jemima represented a staple of blackface vaudeville minstrel shows, which was, and continues to be, incredibly demeaning to the Black population. Oftentimes, the Aunt Jemima character in most minstrel shows were played by white men in blackface to make a mockery of the plight of Black Americans.
Despite the product being something the market had never seen before, it wasn’t a success and Rutt and Underwood sold the company to R.T. Davis Mill and Manufacturing Company in 1890. The original imagery continued to be used and the racial bigotry was stepped up a notch when the new company decided to hire a real-life Aunt Jemima named Nancy Green to represent the brand at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition where she made pancakes and told scripted stories about the Old South.
Nancy was born a slave in Kentucky and helped the brand achieve much success, especially after an advertising firm drew up a story about her “loyal service” to a Louisiana slaveholder who she protected from raiding Union soldiers. The character and product line was so successful, R. T. Davis Mill and Manufacturing Company renamed itself to Aunt Jemima Mills in 1914.
There were numerous merchandise created from the Aunt Jemima mammy trope including a rag doll collection, cookie jars, and cutout paper dolls inside boxes of pancake mix. The real Black women who played the character were the most important to the success of the brand. Once Nancy passed away in 1923, there were a series of Black women who continued to portray the Aunt Jemima image at fairs and other venues to promote the product.
Anna Robinson played the role from 1933 to 1951 and weighed roughly 350 pounds. Aylene Lewis played the role from 1957 to 1964 and was often a staple at the Aunt Jemima Pancake House at Disneyland. By this time, the brand was doing so well that it expanded to include frozen waffles and syrup.
The brand was purchased by the Quaker Oats Company in 1925 and received changes to the imagery in 1968 following criticism of the racial tropes being used. Her bandana was replaced with a plain headband, her face was slimmer, and her skin tone was lighter. During a second revision in 1986, she lost her headband completely, wore pearl earrings, a lace collar, and had slightly gray hair. Despite these visual changes, the brand continued to use the pejorative name.
After increased public attention to the problematic image, as well as declining market share among Black consumers, the Quaker Oats Company attempted another rebrand. In 1994, Gladys Knight was hired to appear in advertisements promoting the Aunt Jemima line but this did little to change their public image. The brand was a constant reminder of how white people saw Black Americans 100 years ago - as servants.
In 2001, PepsiCo purchased Quaker, giving the brand another new owner. Despite the change in times regarding the decrease in racialized advertising and marketing tactics, PepsiCo left the Aunt Jemima brand largely intact until the murder of George Floyd in 2020. After the global protests, the chief marketing officer said:
“We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype. 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.”
The brand was officially renamed to Pearl Milling Company in February 2021 with many other food brands such as Uncle Ben’s quickly following suit. While the pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast foods are delicious, the imagery of the brand was always rooted in anti-black racism. It’s important to correct the false racial stereotypes that continue to be used against us as a community.
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Signed,
Jessica Marie
