Great-Grandson Of Aunt Jemima Actress Angry At Her Legacy Being Erased
The great-grandson of Aunt Jemima Actress Anna Short Harrington is now angry at her legacy being erased following Quaker Oats’ decision to change its logo and name on its pancake mix and syrup. The move was in response to nationwide civil unrest and protests calling for racial equity.
Harrington’s great-grandson, Larnell Evans Sr. says, “This is an injustice for me and my family. This is part of my history. The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side — white people. This company profits off images of our slavery. And their answer is to erase my great-grandmother’s history. A Black female. … It hurts.”
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Evans adds, “She worked for that Quaker Oats for 20 years. She traveled all the way around the United States and Canada making pancakes as Aunt Jemima for them. This woman served all those people, and it was after slavery. She worked as Aunt Jemima. That was her job. … How do you think I feel as a black man sitting here telling you about my family history they’re trying to erase?”
While the first “Aunt Jemima” debuted at Chicago’s World’s Fair in 1893, played by former enslaved woman Nancy Green up until her death in 1923, Evans says in 1935, Quaker Oats discovered Harrington at the New York State Fair and hired her to dress up as the character for its branding and tour North America, making her a national celebrity. In 2014, Harrington’s descendants filed a $3 billion lawsuit claiming the company used her pancake recipe, however, they lost.
Concluding, Evans says, “How many white people were raised looking at characters like Aunt Jemima at breakfast every morning? How many white corporations made all them profits, and didn’t give us a dime? I think they should have to look at it. They can’t just wipe it out while we still suffer. After making all that money —and now’s the time when black people are saying we want restitution for slavery — they’re just going to erase history like it didn’t happen? … They’re not going to give us nothing? What gives them the right?”