The Aunt Jemima brand is recognized as the first company to use a living trademark that relied on racist stereotypes. Originating in 1889, the brand relied on the "mammy" archetype, known for depicting black women as docile, faithful slaves meant to soothe white guilt and market a fantasy of the Old South. In 1888, Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood bought a floundering flour mill in St. Joseph, Missouri. In an effort to sell off the excess flour, they developed a pancake mix that they sold in paper bags with their Pearl Milling Company name. Rutt and Underwood wanted a brand name that would set it apart from other products on the market. The Aunt Jemima name is reportedly from a minstrel show and this branding would last until 2021, when Quaker, who now owns the Aunt Jemima brand, announced they would phase out Aunt Jemima and rename the products to the original Pearl Milling Company.

TIMELINE

1889 – Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood acquire a bankrupt flour mill and create a self-rising pancake flour and name it Aunt Jemima

1890– Rutt and Underwood go bankrupt and sell the company and recipe to R.T. Davis.

1893 – Nancy Green, a former slave born in Kentucky, debuts as the first Aunt Jemima at the World's Columbian Expo in Chicago. Purd Wright writes the fictional biography "The Life of Aunt Jemima," 

1903 – Robert Clark takes control of the company and renames it Aunt Jemima Mills.

1919 – Illustrator N.C. Wyeth joins the ad campaign under James Webb Young to reshape the brand's image.

1920s – Aunt Jemima becomes a ubiquitous part of American life and grocery stores.

1933 – Quaker Oats resurrects the "living trademark" for the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, hiring Anna Robinson as the new face of the brand.

1955 – Quaker Oats opens "Aunt Jemima's Pancake House" in Disneyland, featuring Aylene Lewis as the face of the restaurant.

Early 1960s – The NAACP officially calls for a boycott of the Aunt Jemima brand.

1964 – The Disneyland restaurant is renamed "Aunt Jemima's Kitchen".

1968 – The brand image is revised, though the figure remains depicted as a slave woman with a head rag.

1970 – Disneyland removes the name "Aunt Jemima" from its restaurant.

1989 – Quaker Oats executes a major image overhaul, depicting her as a "working grandmother" rather than a slave.

1990 – The last national television campaign airs before a four-year hiatus.

September 1994: The brand launches its first national TV campaign since 1990, hiring singer Gladys Knight to represent the product.

2019 – Quaker Oats significantly reduces marketing for the brand

May 25, 2020 – The murder of George Floyd 

June 15, 2020 – A TikTok video by Kirby Lauryen criticizing the Aunt Jemima brand goes viral.

June 17, 2020 – Quaker Oats announces it will phase out the Aunt Jemima brand name and image.

February 9, 2021 – Quaker Oats announces the new brand name: Pearl Milling Company

June 2021: – New packaging is launched in grocery stores

REFERENCES

Gerhardt, D. R. (2022). The Last Breakfast with Aunt Jemima and Its Impact on Trademark Theory. The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 45(2), 231-262. ProQuest. 

Harris, M. D. (2003). Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation. University of North Carolina Press.

Kalaitzandonakes, M., Ellison, B., & Lusk, J. L. (2024, August). Goodbye Aunt Jemima: Consumer Preferences for Pancake Mix Following Rebranding. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics; Baton Rouge, 56(3), 445-462. ProQuest. 

Kaplan, S. C. (2021). The Black Reproductive: Unfree Labor and Insurgent Motherhood. University of Minnesota Press.

Manring, M. M. (1998). Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima. University Press of Virginia.

McElya, M. (2007). Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century America. Harvard University Press.