"Aunt Jemima" was really a storyteller, cook, and activist named Nancy Green

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Nancy Green (November 17, 1834 – August 30, 1923[1][2]) was a storyteller, cook, activist, and the first of several African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark as "Aunt Jemima".[3]

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Green was born into slavery on March 4, 1834, near Mount Sterling in Montgomery County, Kentucky.[4] She was hired in 1890[5] 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.[3] Davis Milling had recently acquired the formula to a ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour from St. Joseph Gazette editor Chris L. Rutt and Charles Underwood and were looking to employ an African-American woman as a Mammy archetype to promote their new product.[6] In 1893 Green was introduced as Aunt Jemima at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, where it was her job to operate a pancake-cooking display. Her amicable personality and talent as a cook for the Walker family, whose children grew up to become Chicago Circuit Judge Charles M. Walker and Dr. Samuel Walker[7] helped establish a successful showing of the product, for which she received a medal and certificate from the Expo officials.[3] After the Expo, Green was offered a lifetime contract to adopt the Aunt Jemima moniker and promote the pancake mix. This marked the beginning of a major promotional push by the company that included thousands of personal appearances and Aunt Jemima merchandising. Nancy Green maintained her job with Davis Milling (which was renamed Aunt Jemima Mills Company in 1914)[8] until her death in 1923; she was still working as Aunt Jemima at the time.

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Green was one of the organizers of the Olivet Baptist Church.[11] Her career allowed Green the financial freedom to become an activist and engage in antipoverty programs.[12] She was one of the first African-American missionary workers. She used her stature as a spokesperson to become a leading advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for individuals in Chicago.

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