Crayola's race-based crayons

Flesh, Prussian Blue, and Indian Red. These were the names of the colors that Crayola eventually fazed out, mainly because of allegations of on-the-edge racism (except in the case of Prussian Blue).

In 1949 the company added the color Flesh, which supposedly represented the color of a white person's skin. It renamed it to Peach in 1962 partially in response to the Civil Rights movement.

Also in 1949, they added Prussian Blue to the list. The name referred to the deep-blue uniforms worn by Prussian soldiers. It got renamed to Midnight Blue in 1958, however, because teachers knew their students no longer had any sense of Prussian history.

The same year Crayola did away with Prussian Blue, they made the same mistake of naming a color after a race. This time it was Indian Red. Although one may think the name pertained to a Native American's skin color, the company stated that Indian Red actually referred to a reddish pigment from India used in oil paints. In 1999 they held a contest to replace Indian Red with a new name. The winner was Chestnut.