‘Aunt Jemima’ relatives suing pancake company for $2B citing century-old agreement

Aunt Jemima couldn’t get any stickier.

Two self-proclaimed descendants of the American pancake icon are taking their heritage to court with a lawsuit seeking more than $2 billion from the Quaker Oats company, Kentucky’s Courier Journal reported.

In a suit filed by the great grandsons of Anna Short Harrington, who went on to become "Aunt Jemima" in 1933, they claim they're owed a slice of the pancake company's revenue according to a long-forgotten agreement stretching back to its late-1800 creation.

According to D. W. Hunter and Larnell Evans, every time Harrington's likeness was used by the company both she, and the original Aunt Jemima spokeswoman, Nancy Green, were entitled to receive a percentage of the revenue.

The suit filed in Chicago last August consequently seeks $2 billion in compensation, plus a share of future revenue.

"Aunt Jemima has become known as one of the most exploited and abused women in American history," Hunter told the Courier Journal.

Quaker Oats, who owns the breakfast brand, denies that a contract ever existed. They argue that the character of Aunt Jemima is fictitious too.

"The image symbolizes a sense of caring, warmth, hospitality and comfort, and is neither based on, nor meant to depict any one person," said a statement released from the PepsiCo subsidiary.

According to Aunt Jemima's history, published on the company's website, the company was first developed by Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood of the Pearl Milling Company in 1889.

One year later R.T. Davis purchased the "struggling Aunt Jemima Manufacturing Company" and hired Nancy Green to portray the larger than life character.

Roughly 43 years later, Anna Robinson was hired to portray Aunt Jemima and fulfilled that role — while traveling around the country doing so — until her death in 1952.