Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for New York Magazine
In 2017 Jack Daniels is a household name, regardless if you’re a liquor connoisseur or not. A Tennessee businessman named Jasper Newton ‘Jack’ Daniel founded a whiskey distillery in 1888 and the rest is history. Unless you’re the family of Nearest Green.
According to Black Enterprise, in 2016 the company revealed that although Daniel is credited for the world’s most popular whiskey, he learned of the beverage making trade from Green, Daniel’s adopted father’s slave.
“I think he should have got more credit,” Claude Eady, a 91-year-old relative of Green told The Telegraph last year. “Back then, they didn’t pay much notice to him, but now everybody’s trying to make a dollar off him. He was the one that did all the work.”
A year later and it looks as if Green’s family wish will come true.
After hearing of his story, Fawn Weaver, a New York Times best-selling author announced this week the launch of the Nearest Green Foundation, an organization that will honor Green’s involvement in the Tennessee whiskey industry. USA Today reports that projects in the works include a museum in Lynchburg, the Nearest Green Memorial Park, a book scheduled for completion this year and a scholarship fund to benefit Green’s direct descendants.
Well done Mrs. Weaver!
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