Introduction
In June 2020, the Quaker Oats Company (a unit of PepsiCo) announced it would phase out the Aunt Jemima brand—ultimately renaming it Pearl Milling Company and removing the iconic mammy-style image from packaging—amid a corporate reckoning over racial stereotypes Wikipedia+2TIME+2. This decision triggered a fervent reaction not only in public debates over racist branding, but also painful opposition from descendants of the Black women who represented Aunt Jemima in person. Most prominently, Larnell Evans Sr., the great-grandson of Anna Short Harrington, who portrayed Aunt Jemima from 1935 to 1954, spoke out forcefully against the change.
Who Was Anna Short Harrington?
Anna Short Harrington, born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, became the third official Aunt Jemima. She was discovered cooking pancakes at the 1935 New York State Fair and subsequently toured the United States and Canada as the brand’s live ambassador for nearly two decades WSB-TV Channel 2 – Atlanta+2Newsweek+2.
Evans, now in his mid-60s, is a retired Marine Corps veteran living in North Carolina. He frames his great-grandmother’s portrayal as legitimate work in an era when opportunities for Black women were severely limited. For him, her role is not a caricature but a family legacy and a part of Black American labor history WSB-TV Channel 2 – Atlanta+2TheGrio+2.
