Reparations: Quaker Oats Sued for Unfair Use of ‘Aunt Jemima’ Image; Family Wants $2 Billion

One of the most iconic faces of Black History is of Anna Short-Harrington.  The world became first familiar with Harrington in 1935. This is when her image became the face of Aunt Jemima pancake mix. Well, nearly 80 years later, Harrington’s family is fighting for her financial just-do. Her great grandchildren have filed a $2 billion lawsuit for unpaid royalties made due to the likeliness of her image. 

D.W. Hunter, along with the rest of Harrington’s great grandchildren, have filed a lawsuit against Quaker Oats, PepsiCo, Pennicle Foods Group, and The Hillshire Brands Company. They are claiming that the companies denied Harrington’s existence as an employee, but hired her to take the role as “Aunt Jemima” in 1935 and registered the trademark at that time. The lawsuit also claims that the companies lied by stating that they didn’t have an image of Harrington after the trademark was registered.

To add insult to injury, Quaker Oats hired Harrington’s youngest daughter Olivia Hunter in 1989. Hunter’s likeliness was then used as the “updated version” of Aunt Jemima in product branding going forward.

The Hunter clan believes $2 billion is a reasonable judgement for the “equitable fair share of royalties.”

Now that’s what we call reparations!

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