24 Jun 2020 1:43 pm
Aunt Jemima was a fictional character.
The brand got its name from the minstrel song “Old Aunt Jemima,” which was composed by African American comedian and performer Billy Kersands.
Chris Rutt, who created the pancake flour in 1889, was inspired by the song after hearing it during a minstrel performance and decided to give the name to his pancake flour.
At the time, Aunt Jemima was seen as a “mammy” character, a racial stereotype of a slave happy to please her white masters.
Rutt then sold his company to a larger milling company, R.T. Davis Milling Co., after failing to sell the flour.
The milling company brought its mix to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and hired Nancy Green, a former slave who was working as a cook for a judge, to act as Aunt Jemima and sell the pancake flour.
https://local12.com/news/around-the-web ... very-flour