Doyle describes putting on blackface and dressing “Aunt Jemima” style, indicating that she intended to portray a Mammy caricature. The legacy of Aunt Jemima began in 1889 based on the minstrel show tune "Old Aunt Jemima." Vaudeville performers wore an apron, bandana, and blackface. White businessman Chris Rutt used the name to label his pancake flour company. When he sold his business, the new owners hired Nancy Green in 1893, a formerly enslaved cook, to be their icon. Her image was used to perpetuate the harmful stereotype of the cheerfully subservient Black cook, or mammy, happy to serve her White masters. Aunt Jemima has also been a common insult to degrade Black women, as seen in Margetta's entry of entertaining sorority sisters with blackface. To read more on blackface and the history of anti-Blackness at William & Mary, click here.

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