Lillian Harris Dean (1870 – 1929) was an African-American cook and entrepreneur who became a minor national celebrity in the 1920s for bringing the cuisine of

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

, New York City, to national attention.

Early life and career

Dean was born in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazo ...

in 1870. She migrated to New York and became a highly successful entrepreneur who catered to the culinary tastes of other displaced African-American Southerners living in

. She took the name Pig Foot Mary because she turned marketing traditional foods such as pigs' feet, hog maws,

chitterlings Chitterlings ( ), sometimes spelled chitlins or chittlins, are a food most commonly made from the small intestines of pigs, though cow, lamb, goose and goat may also be used. They may be filled with a forcemeat to make sausage.''Oxford English ...

(chitlins), and other foods into a thriving business. Though she did not attain the fame or millionaire status of

Madam C. J. Walker Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. Walker is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the ''Guinne ...

, Dean was an early example of African-American entrepreneurial success in the post-

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

era. Dean began by selling food in 1901 on 60th Street sidewalk out of a makeshift cart — actually, a re-purposed baby carriage — at the corner of West 135th Street (what is now Malcolm X Boulevard). Her wares included chitterlings, hogmaws, and pig's feet as well as corn. In time, she was able to afford a

steam table This page provides supplementary data to the article properties of water. Further comprehensive authoritative data can be found at the ''NIST Chemistry WebBook'' page on thermophysical properties of fluids. Structure and properties Thermodyna ...

booth, which she attached to the corner newsstand — and she married the newsstand owner, John Dean. Her biography is summed up in these two paragraphs by prominent African-American journalist Roi Ottley, writing in 1943: She is described by

James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ...

in his 1925 magazine article "The Making of Harlem": In 1908 she married John Dean, a postal worker and newsstand owner. Johnson provided a slightly different version in 1930's "Black Manhattan":

Later life

As Johnson notes, Dean invested her food stand profits in real estate and attained a considerable fortune, "several hundred thousand dollars" according to landmark information from the City of New York's Department of Planning."Malcolm X Boulevard: Virtual Tour"
(undated; post-1997) Department of Planning, City of New York, retrieved August 26, 2006. Ottley provides further detail, stating that John Dean encouraged his wife to invest: Ottley was enumerating these sums in 1917 dollars (the building purchase), 1923 dollars (the sale), and 1943 dollars (her eventual fortune). Adjusted for inflation, these sums record a remarkable history of accomplishment for a woman who arrived in New York City at the turn of the 20th century, alone, illiterate and completely impoverished. Lillian Harris Dean retired to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and died in 1929.

Loretta Devine Loretta Devine (born August 21, 1949) is an American actress. She is known for numerous roles across stage and screen. Her most high profile roles include Lorrell Robinson in the original Broadway production of ''Dreamgirls'' (1981), Gloria Mat ...

portrays a highly fictionalized version of Dean in the 1997 movie ''

Hoodlum A hoodlum is a thug, usually in a group of misfits who are associated with crime or theft. Early use The earliest reference to the word "hoodlum" was in the December 14, 1866, ''San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin'' after the Hoodlum Band was ...

''; she is a gangster's girlfriend who is murdered by her lover's enemies. Her story was memorialized in a Daniel Carlton play ''Pigfoot Mary Says Goodbye to the Harlem Renaissance.''

Early life and career

Later life

See also

References

Further reading