Harrington’s role
Quaker Oats acquired the brand in the 1920s.
The lawsuit contends that the company recruited Harrington to become Aunt Jemima while flipping pancakes in a booth at the New York State Fair in 1935. It says she then enhanced the recipe with “potato grease.”
Harrington herself was the daughter of sharecroppers who worked on a former plantation in South Carolina.
The lawsuit said neither she nor Green possessed the education or acumen to bargain fairly with the pancake companies.
“Defendants were in position to exploit Nancy Green, and Anna Harrington, that came from plantations,” the lawsuit said, adding that three of Harrington’s daughters were later recruited to represent the brand or were photographed as Aunt Jemima.