Venturer Spotlight: Lillian Harris Dean
The Venturer Spotlight is our ongoing series highlighting women whose stories deserve to be told, as often and loudly as possible.
These are women who’ve chosen to live passionately, and to continue to question, challenge, and venture out with bravery and curiosity in whatever field or circumstance they found themselves in. These are our role models, and the women we want to be when we grow up.
HERE’S WHY WE LOVE HER…
In the late 1800s, New York found itself in the middle of reconstruction after the civil war, and workers began coming in droves from Southern States looking for work. Lillian Harris Dean realized as she was in the city working that if she was homesick for South, other people must be as well.
So she took $300, bought a baby carriage that she modified into possibly the city’s first food cart, and began selling collard greens, chitlins, and pig’s feet.
She rebranded herself as Pig Foot Mary, and over 16 years she built a food empire in Harlem, becoming one of the first African American millionaires and employing dozens of other women.
That’s our kind of lady.
WANT TO DIVE DEEPER?
Here are a few ways you can learn more about her…
READ
WATCH
If you’re lucky enough to catch a showing of the Negro Ensemble Company’s traveling performances, they occasionally put on a play on her life, which would be really cool to see.
You can also see her as a supporting character in the 1997 movie about 1930s Harlem gangsters, Hoodlum.
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