Anna Short Harrington

Anna Short Harrington (1897 – 1955) was an American model. She was one of several African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark as "Aunt Jemima".

Biography

Anna Short was born in 1897 in the Wallace area of Marlboro County, South Carolina.

The Short family lived on the Pegues Place plantation as sharecroppers.

{{cite news

|title=Book details history of Wallace's own 'Aunt Jemima'

|last=Sloan

|first=Bob

|date=May 7, 2009

|work=The Cheraw Chronicle

|url=http://www.thecherawchronicle.com/view/full_story/2516456/article-Book-details-history-of-Wallace-s-own--Aunt-Jemima-

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101053208/http://thecherawchronicle.com/view/full_story/2516456/article-Book-details-history-of-Wallace-s-own--Aunt-Jemima-

|archive-date=January 1, 2011

|access-date=August 14, 2013

|df=mdy

}}

She grew up in Bennettsville, South Carolina, where she had three daughters and two sons.{{cite news

|title=Book serves up the life of Syracuse's 'Aunt Jemima'

|last=Case

|first=Dick

|date=November 3, 2002

|work=The Post-Standard

|url=http://syracusethenandnow.org/History/AuntJemima.htm

|access-date=August 14, 2013

|archive-date=October 13, 2013

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013195036/http://syracusethenandnow.org/History/AuntJemima.htm

|url-status=usurped

}}

Her husband, Weldon Harrington, left the family after 10 years of marriage.

In 1927, she moved north to work as a maid for a family in Nedrow, New York.

{{cite news

|title=The Syracuse resident that portrayed Aunt Jemima, and the racist history of the character

|last=Wight

|first=Conor

|date=June 17, 2020

|work=CNYCentral.com

|publisher=Sinclair Broadcast Group

|url=https://cnycentral.com/station/the-syracuse-resident-that-portrayed-aunt-jemima-and-the-racist-history-of-the-character

|access-date=19 June 2020

}}

A year later, she was reunited with her five children in Syracuse, New York.

{{cite news

|title=Exploring Syracuse's tie to the controversial 'Aunt Jemima' brand

|last=Croyle

|first=Johnathan

|date=June 18, 2020

|work=syracuse.com

|url=https://www.syracuse.com/living/2020/06/exploring-syracuses-ties-to-the-controversial-aunt-jemima-brand.html

|access-date=19 June 2020

}}

Harrington cooked for various fraternity houses at Syracuse University.

In 1935, Quaker Oats discovered her cooking pancakes at the New York State Fair in the Syracuse area.

A November 1935 ad in Woman's Home Companion emphasized her Southern accent and dialect, saying "Let ol' Auntie sing in yo' kitchen."{{Cite web|url=http://www.oswegocountybusiness.com/departments/my-turn/icons-of-my-youth-not-in-tune-with-post-george-floyd-era/|title=Icons of My Youth Not in Tune with Post-George Floyd Era|date=29 July 2023 }}

Part of Harrington's marketability would have been her southern accent as a native of South Carolina.

Her last recorded appearance was the 1954 Post-Standard Home Show.

She died in Syracuse in 1955 at the age of 58, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery.

She had made enough money to purchase a 22-room house with a backyard bungalow on Monroe Street, in a segregated area known as the 15th Ward, at that time considered among the worst slums in the world. The multi-room house had been cut up into single room dwelling units, where she rented many of the rooms to boarders.

{{cite news

|title=I-81 Highway Robbery: The razing of Syracuse's 15th Ward

|last=Haas

|first=David

|date=December 12, 2018

|work=SyracuseNewTimes.com

|url=https://www.syracusenewtimes.com/highway-robbery-5-decades-ago-syracuse-neighborhoods-were-razed-to-construct-interstate-81/

|access-date=2020-06-28

}}

The house was demolished for urban renewal and construction of Interstate 81 in the 1960s.

Lawsuit

On August 5, 2014, descendants of Anna Short Harrington filed a lawsuit seeking a multi-billion dollar settlement in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against defendants Quaker Oats and PepsiCo. The suit, which also named as defendants Pinnacle Foods and its former suitor Hillshire Brands, accused the companies of failing to pay Harrington and her heirs an "equitable fair share of royalties" from the pancake mix and syrup brand that uses her likeness and recipes.{{cite news |last1=Huddleston Jr. |first1=Tom |title='Aunt Jemima' heirs sue Pepsi, Quaker Oats for $2 billion in royalties |url=https://fortune.com/2014/08/11/aunt-jemima-great-grandchildren-class-action/ |accessdate=19 June 2020 |work=Fortune |date=August 11, 2014 |language=en}}

[http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits/trademark-lawsuits/illinois-northern-district-court/869653/d-w-hunter-jr-et-al-v-pepsico-inc-et-al/summary/ D.W. Hunter, Jr. et al. v. PepsiCo Inc. et al.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914000612/http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits/trademark-lawsuits/illinois-northern-district-court/869653/d-w-hunter-jr-et-al-v-pepsico-inc-et-al/summary/ |date=September 14, 2014 }} RFC Express. August 5, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice and without leave to amend on February 18, 2015.

{{cite web|url=http://www.law360.com/foodbeverage/articles/622678?nl_pk=bffd2cb1-af6b-40e8-a3c7-e4cc948e852f|title='Aunt Jemima' Heirs' $3B Royalties Suit Against Pepsi Axed|work=law360.com}}

Anna Short Harrington

Biography

Lawsuit

References

Further reading