Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?

This is Ringgold’s first story quilt and the first quilt project she made by herself, without the help of her mother, who died the previous year. Squares along the borders depict African American women of varying ages from all walks of life, and the squares in the center depict a variety of different people, each connected to a block of text that tell some part of Aunt Jemima’s story. The center square resembles a book title page and declares the piece a “quilt book.”

As Michele Wallace, the artist’s daughter and art critic, has noted, the work answers the question “what are we (as black women) supposed to do with our lives and how are we supposed to do it?” Ringgold contradicts a common stereotype of an African American woman by here recasting Aunt Jemima as a successful businesswoman and notes that the work is also “a feminist statement about the stereotype of black women as fat. Aunt Jemima conveys the same negative connotation as Uncle Tom, simply because of her looks.” By focusing on a heroic matriarch, Ringgold also connects to Aunt Jemima’s story her own success in overcoming the stereotypes she faced as an African American woman and artist.

Acrylic on canvas, dyed, painted and pieced fabric – Private collection

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima: an assemblage that repositions a derogatory figurine, a product of America’s deep-seated history of racism, as an armed warrior. It’s become both Saar’s most iconic piece and a symbol of black liberation and radical feminist art—one which legendary Civil Rights activist Angela Davis would later credit with launching the black women’s movement.