{{Short description|American model, cook, and activist (1834–1923)}} {{About||the musician|Nancy Green (cellist)|the Canadian Senator and alpine skier|Nancy Greene}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020|cs1-dates=ly}} {{Infobox person | name = Nancy Green | image = Aunt Jemima, AB Frost.jpg | caption = Portrait of Green as Aunt Jemima | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1834|3|4}} | birth_place = Mount Sterling, Kentucky, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1923|8|30|1834|3|4}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Nanny, cook, model | years_active = | known_for = Aunt Jemima | notable_works = }} ''' Nancy Green''' (March 4, 1834 – August 30, 1923) was an American former slave, who, as "Aunt Jemima", was one of the first African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark. The Aunt Jemima recipe was not her recipe, but she became the advertising world's first living trademark.<ref name="AAR">{{cite web |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/nancy-green-the-original-aunt-jemima/ |title=Nancy Green, the original "Aunt Jemima" |website=aaregistry.org |date=2005 |quote=" She was a Black storyteller and one of the first (Black) corporate models in the United States. Nancy Green was born a slave in Montgomery County, Kentucky."|access-date=June 19, 2020}}</ref>
== Biography == Nancy Hayes (or Hughes) was born enslaved in the Antebellum South on March 4, 1834.<ref name=Turley_2020> {{cite news |first=Alicestyne |last=Turley |url=https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article243794117.html |title=The real story behind 'Aunt Jemima,' and a woman born enslaved in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky |newspaper=Lexington Herald-Leader |date=June 25, 2020 |access-date=June 25, 2020}}</ref> Montgomery County Historical Society oral history places her birth at a farm on Somerset Creek, six miles outside Mount Sterling in Montgomery County, Kentucky. With George Green, she had at least two and as many as four children (one of whom was born in 1862). Local farmers from that area named Green raised tobacco, hay, cattle, and hogs. There were no birth certificates or marriage licenses for enslaved people.<ref> {{cite news |first=Tom |last=Eblen |url=https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/community/article44153517.html |title=New location fitting for black history museum |newspaper=Lexington Herald-Leader |date=February 8, 2012 |access-date=June 22, 2020}}</ref><ref name=courier_2014-10-03> {{cite news |url=https://www.courier-journal.com/story/money/2014/10/03/pancake-flap-aunt-jemima-heirs-seek-dough/16654599/ |title=Pancake flap: Aunt Jemima heirs seek dough |first=Jere |last=Downs |date=October 7, 2014 |newspaper=Louisville Courier Journal |access-date=June 25, 2020}}</ref><ref name=NYT_2020-07-17>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/obituaries/nancy-green-aunt-jemima-overlooked.html |title=Overlooked No More: Nancy Green, the 'Real Aunt Jemima' |first=Sam |last=Roberts |date=July 18, 2020 |newspaper=New York Times |access-date=2020-07-18}}</ref>
Nancy Green has been variously described as a servant, nurse, nanny, housekeeper, and cook for Samuel Johnson Walker and his wife Amanda.<ref name="tribune sept 4"> {{cite news |title='Aunt Jemima' of Pancake Fame Is Killed by Auto |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53739862/nancy-green-1834-1923/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=September 4, 1923 |page=13 |via = Newspapers.com |access-date=June 19, 2020}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref name=Turley_2020 /><ref name=courier_2014-10-03 /><ref name=NYT_2020-07-17 /><ref name=Hansen_2020> {{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-aunt-jemima-brand-real-women-20200619-5wkt2euhrbcjdokrh5qvu6r7te-story.html |title=The real stories of the Chicago women who portrayed Aunt Jemima |first=John Mark |last=Hansen |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=June 19, 2020 |access-date=June 22, 2020}}</ref> She also served the family's next generation, again as a nanny and a cook. Walker's two sons later became well known as Chicago Circuit Judge Charles Morehead Walker., and Dr. Samuel J. Walker.<ref name="tribune sept 4" /><ref name=NYT_2020-07-17 /><ref name=Hansen_2020 />
By the end of the American Civil War, Green had already lost her husband and children. She lived in a wood frame shack (still standing as of 2014) behind a grand home on Main Street in Covington, Kentucky.<ref name=Turley_2020 /><ref name=courier_2014-10-03 /> She moved with the Walkers from Kentucky to Chicago in the early 1870s, before the birth of Samuel's youngest child in 1872.<ref name=Hansen_2020 /> The Walker family initially settled in a swank residential district near Ashland Avenue and Washington Boulevard called the "Kentucky Colony", then home to many transplanted Kentuckians.<ref name=Hansen_2020 /> thumb|left|170px|1894 advertisement depicting Nancy Green as Aunt Jemima On the recommendation of Judge Walker,<ref name=BIA> {{cite book |last=Kern-Foxworth |first=Marilyn |title=Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Rastus: Blacks in advertising, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Public Relations Review |publisher=Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press |year=1994 |url=http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR5184&chapterID=GR5184-561&path=books/greenwood |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424192836/http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR5184&chapterID=GR5184-561&path=books%2Fgreenwood |archive-date=April 24, 2014 |volume=16 (Fall):59}}</ref> she was hired 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. According to Maurice M. Manring, the company's search for "A real living black woman, instead of a white man in blackface and drag, would reinforce the product's authenticity and origin as the creation of a real ex-slave."<ref>{{cite book |first=Maurice M. |last=Manring |title= Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima |publisher=University of Virginia Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-8139-1811-1 |url-access= registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813918112}} - Article on book: ''Slave in a Box''</ref>
At the age of 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. <ref name=BIA /><ref name=BlackHunger> {{cite book |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/31544 |title=Black Hunger: Soul Food and America |first=Doris |last=Witt |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8166-4551-0}}</ref><ref name=KWS_2008> {{Cite book |last=Wallace-Sanders |first=Kimberly |year=2008 |title=Mammy: A Century of Race, Gender, and Southern Memory |chapter=Dishing Up Dixie: Recycling the Old South |pages=58–72 |isbn=978-0-472-11614-0 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |oclc=185123470}}</ref><ref name=caricature_mammy>{{cite web |url=https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/diversity/african/1-mammy/index.html |title=Caricatures of African Americans: Mammy |date=November 25, 2012 |publisher=Regnery Publishing |access-date=June 19, 2020 |archive-date=2020-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622062350/https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/diversity/african/1-mammy/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
After the Expo, Green was reportedly offered a lifetime contract to adopt the Aunt Jemima moniker and promote the pancake mix; however, she would only choose to serve in the position for twenty years.<ref name="AAR" /><ref name=McElya_2007> {{Cite book|last=McElya |first=Micki |title=Clinging to mammy: the faithful slave in twentieth-century America |date=2007 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-04079-3 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |oclc=433147574}}</ref> This marked the beginning of a major promotional push by the company that included thousands of personal appearances and Aunt Jemima merchandising. She appeared at fairs, festivals, flea markets, food shows, and local grocery stores. Her arrival was heralded by large billboards featuring the caption, "I's in town, honey."<ref name=BIA /><ref name=caricature_mammy />
Despite her "lifetime contract", she portrayed the role for no more than twenty years.<ref name="tribune sept 4" /><ref name=BlackHunger /> She refused to cross the ocean for the 1900 Paris exhibition.<ref name="tribune sept 4" /><ref name=BlackHunger /><ref name=Nagasawa_2020> {{cite news |url=https://www.wbez.org/stories/the-fight-to-preserve-the-legacy-of-nancy-green-the-chicago-woman-who-played-the-original-aunt-jemima/52ed36eb-d4f0-4747-ac65-62b4c4150e9f |title=The Fight To Preserve The Legacy Of Nancy Green, The Chicago Woman Who Played The Original 'Aunt Jemima' |publisher=WBEZ |first=Katherine |last=Nagasawa |date=June 19, 2020 |access-date=June 22, 2020}}</ref> She was replaced by Agnes Moodey, deemed by the company to be "a Negress of sixty years".<ref name=IDR_1900> {{cite news |title="Aunt Jemima" Back: Famous Baker of Hoe Cakes Returns from Her Service in Corn Kitchen of Paris Exposition" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34504432/aunt-jemima-actress-agnes-moodey/ |newspaper=Independence Daily Reporter |location=Independence, Kansas |date=December 3, 1900 |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com |access-date=June 24, 2020}} {{Open access}}</ref> After Green's death other women were hired by Quaker Oats to portray the role of Aunt Jemima, including Lillian Richard.<ref name=ABC2020>{{cite news |last1=Scholosberg |first1=Jon |last2=Roberts |first2=Deborah |date=12 August 2020 |title=The untold story of the real 'Aunt Jemima' and the fight to preserve her legacy |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/untold-story-real-aunt-jemima-fight-preserve-legacy/story?id=72293603 |work=ABC News |access-date=29 February 2024}}</ref>
In 1910, at age 76, Green was still working as a residential housekeeper according to the census.<ref name=Hansen_2020 /><ref name=BlackHunger /><ref name=McElya_2007 />
Few people were aware of her role as Aunt Jemima.<ref name=McElya_2007 /> Green lived with nieces and nephews in Chicago's Fuller Park and Grand Boulevard neighborhoods into her old age.<ref name=Hansen_2020 /> At the time of her death, she was living with her great-nephew and his wife.<ref name=Nagasawa_2020 />
==Religion and advocacy== Green was active in the Chicago Olivet Baptist Church.<ref name="tribune sept 4" /><ref name=Hansen_2020 /><ref name=BIA /> During her lifetime, it grew significantly, becoming the largest black church in the United States, with a membership at that time of over 9,000.<ref name="tribune sept 4" /><ref name="Best"> {{cite web |last1=Best |first1=Wallace |title=Olivet Baptist Church |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/929.html |website=Encyclopedia of Chicago |access-date=September 11, 2019}}</ref>
Her stature as a national spokesperson enabled her to become an advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights, both for individuals in Chicago and the black population.<ref name="AAR" /><ref>{{cite book | first = Diane | last= Roberts | title= The Myth of Aunt Jemima: Representations of Race and Region | publisher= Routledge | year=1994 | isbn= 0-415-04918-0}}</ref>
==Death== Green died on August 30, 1923, at the age of 89 in Chicago, when a car driven by pharmacist Dr. H. S. Seymour collided with a laundry truck and "hurtled" onto the sidewalk where she was standing.<ref name="tribune sept 4" /><ref name=Hansen_2020 /><ref name="tribune aug 31">{{cite news |date=August 31, 1923 |title=Death Notices | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=10 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Pan-Cake 'Mammy' Is Dead|date=August 31, 1923|work=Chicago Daily News|page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=September 9, 1923 |title="Aunt Jemima" of Pancake Fame, Dead |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2293&dat=19230909&id=F4hhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pAIGAAAAIBAJ&pg=3792,4081873 | work=The Sunday Morning Star |page=17 |access-date=2020-07-17 }}</ref> She is buried in a pauper's grave near a wall in the northeast quadrant of Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery.<ref name="tribune aug 31" /><ref name=Crowther_2020> {{cite web |url=https://www.legacy.com/news/culture-and-history/finally-a-proper-headstone-for-the-original-aunt-jemima-spokeswoman-nancy-green/ |title=Finally, a proper headstone for the original Aunt Jemima spokeswoman, Nancy Green |first=Linnea |last=Crowther |date=June 19, 2020 |website=legacy.com |access-date=2020-07-23}}</ref>
===Grave marker=== Her grave was unmarked and unknown until 2015.<ref name=Hansen_2020 /> Sherry Williams, founder of the Bronzeville Historical Society, spent 15 years uncovering Green's resting place.<ref name=Nagasawa_2020 /><ref name=Crowther_2020 /> Williams received approval to place a headstone.<ref name=Crowther_2020 /> Williams reached out to Quaker Oats about whether they would support a monument for Green's grave. "Their corporate response was that Nancy Green and Aunt Jemima aren't the same{{snd}} that Aunt Jemima is a fictitious character."<ref name=Nagasawa_2020 /> The headstone was placed on September 5, 2020.<ref name=Defender_2020-08-31> {{cite news |url=https://chicagodefender.com/nancy-green-the-original-face-of-aunt-jemima-receives-a-headstone/ |title=Nancy Green, the Original face of Aunt Jemima, Receives a Headstone |first=Tammy |last=Gibson |date=August 31, 2020 |access-date=2020-11-09 |newspaper=The Chicago Defender}}</ref><ref name=Crusader_2020-09-15>{{cite news |url=https://chicagocrusader.com/nearly-100-years-later-original-aunt-jemima-gets-a-headstone/ |title=Nearly 100 years later, original Aunt Jemima gets a headstone |first=Erick |last=Johnson |date=September 15, 2020 |newspaper=The Chicago Crusader |access-date=2020-09-22 |archive-date=2020-11-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111161747/https://chicagocrusader.com/nearly-100-years-later-original-aunt-jemima-gets-a-headstone/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Lawsuit == In 2014, a lawsuit was filed against Quaker Oats, PepsiCo, and others, claiming that Green and Anna Short Harrington (who portrayed 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 multi-billion dollar settlement for descendants of Green and Harrington.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/10/08/aunt-jemima-might-have-been-real-and-her-descendants-are-suing-quaker-2-billion|title=Aunt Jemima Might Have Been Real, and Her Descendants Are Suing for $2 Billion|website=TakePart|language=en|access-date=February 27, 2019|archive-date=2019-02-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228004212/http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/10/08/aunt-jemima-might-have-been-real-and-her-descendants-are-suing-quaker-2-billion/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice and without leave to amend on February 18, 2015.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law360.com/foodbeverage/articles/622678?nl_pk=bffd2cb1-af6b-40e8-a3c7-e4cc948e852f|title='Aunt Jemima' Heirs' $3B Royalties Suit Against Pepsi Axed|work=law360.com}}</ref>
== See also == * Tess Gardella
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Nancy}} Category:1834 births Category:1923 deaths Category:19th-century American slaves Category:19th-century Baptists Category:20th-century African-American people Category:19th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American women Category:Aunt Jemima Category:African-American activists Category:Baptists from Illinois Category:Female characters in advertising Category:Pedestrian road incident deaths Category:People from Montgomery County, Kentucky Category:Quaker Oats Company people Category:Road incident deaths in Illinois Category:People enslaved in Kentucky