Source: SOPA Images / Getty
Quaker announced last week that it will be changing the name and packaging of Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup, but the families of former Aunt Jemima ambassadors are not happy.
According to Patch.com, Larnell Evans Sr, the great-grandson of Anna Short Harrington, who portrayed Aunt Jemima from 1935 to 1954, believes Quaker is trying to erase his grandmother’s history.
“This is part of my history, sir. The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side. This company profits off images of our slavery. And their answer is to erase my great-grandmother’s history. A Black female… It hurts.”
Vera Harris, great-niece to Lillian Richard, who became an ambassador of Aunt Jemima around the same time as Harrington, feels the same way as Evans.
“We just don’t want my aunt’s legacy and what she did by making an honest living at the time — to be wiped away. Her story should not be erased from history.”
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