Grits Maker Geechie Boy Mill Changes Its Name Amid Backlash

Marsh Hen Mill joins a growing list of companies reckoning with racist names and logos. Last week, Mars Inc. announced it would change the name of its rice brand, Uncle Bens, to Bens Original. Quaker Oats will start producing pancake mix and syrup without the Aunt Jemima logo by the end of this year.

The Gullah Geechee are descendants of African slaves who settled in coastal areas of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. Their name stems from the Ogeechee River in Georgia. They developed a unique, Creole language also known as Gullah Geechee.

Geechie Boy was the nickname of Raymond Tumbleston, a white farmer on Edisto Island, South Carolina, who died in 2016. When they took over the farm in 2003, Johnsman and his wife Betsy kept the Geechie Boy name. Geechie Boy grits made from heirloom grains are now sold around the country.

But in recent months, the couple began hearing criticism of the name, which some customers felt was inappropriate and an appropriation of the Geechee heritage.