Born a slave in 1834 in Kentucky, Nancy Green was the first Aunt Jemima "Mammy" in 1890.
More than century later, Aunt Jemima no longer resembles a servant, having swapped her red bandanna for pearls and soft curls in 1989.
Now a lawsuit claims that Green's heirs as well as the descendants of other black women who appeared as Aunt Jemima deserve $2 billion and a share of future revenue from sales of the popular brand.
The federal suit, filed in Chicago in August by two great-grandsons of Anna Short Harrington, says that she and Green were key in formulating the recipe for the nation's first self-rising pancake mix, and that Green came up with the idea of adding powdered milk for extra flavor.
"Aunt Jemima has become known as one of the most exploited and abused women in American history," said D.W. Hunter, one of Harrington's great-grandsons.
