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Josephine Baker to Be First Black Woman in France’s Panthéon

Josephine Baker, an American-born Black dancer and civil rights activist who in the early 20th century became one of France’s great music-hall stars, will be laid to rest in the Panthéon, France’s storied tomb of heroes, a close adviser to President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, August 22, 2021. The honor will make Ms. Baker — who became a French citizen in 1937 and died in Paris in 1975 — the first Black woman and one of very few foreign-born figures to be interred there.  Josephine Baker is best-known for her celebrated song and dance career that spanned five decades. But she is also famous for being a spy for the French resistance during World War II. 

 

Josephine Baker Spy

 

“'Sometimes she would write along her armsand in the palm of her hand the things she heard. I told her this was dangerous, but she laughed. "Oh, nobody would think I’m a spy."'”

 

Josephine Baker is best-known for her celebrated song and dance career that spanned five decades. But she is also famous for being a spy for the French resistance during World War II. As the story goes, Nazi guards were so star-struck by Baker that they let her slip across the border without trouble — little knowing that she was smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music. After the war, Baker was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her service.As the story goes, Nazi guards were so star-struck by Baker that they let her slip across the border without trouble — little knowing that she was smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music. After the war, Baker was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her service.

 

 

Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she later took the name Baker from her second husband, Willie Baker, whom she married at age 15. Surviving the 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, where the family was living, Josephine Baker ran away a few years later at age thirteen and began dancing in vaudeville and on Broadway. In 1925, Josephine Baker went to Paris where, after the jazz revue La Revue Nègre failed, her comic ability and jazz dancing drew attention of the director of the Folies Bergère.

 

Josephine Baker dancing the original charleston - 1925 

 

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Virtually an instant hit, Josephine Baker became one of the best-known entertainers in both France and much of Europe. Her exotic, sensual act reinforced the creative images coming out of the Harlem Renaissance in America. During World War II Josephine Baker worked with the Red Cross, gathered intelligence for the French Resistance and entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East. After the war, Josephine Baker adopted, with her second husband, twelve children from around the world, making her home a World Village, a "showplace for brotherhood." She returned to the stage in the 1950s to finance this project.

 

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Josephine Baker in the Movie "Havana" in 1950

 

In 1951 in the United States, Josephine Baker was refused service at the famous Stork Club in New York City. Yelling at columnist Walter Winchell, another patron of the club, for not coming to her assistance, she was accused by Winchell of communist and fascist sympathies. Never as popular in the US as in Europe, she found herself fighting the rumors begun by Winchell as well. Josephine Baker responded by crusading for racial equality, refusing to entertain in any club or theater that was not integrated, and thereby breaking the color bar at many establishments. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Josephine Baker's World Village fell apart in the 1950s and in 1969 she was evicted from her chateau which was then auctioned off to pay debts. Princess Grace of Monaco gave her a villa. In 1973 Baker married an American, Robert Brady, and began her stage comeback. In 1975, Josephine Baker's Carnegie Hall comeback performance was a success, as was her subsequent Paris performance. But two days after her last Paris performance, she died of a stroke.

 

380px Baker Banana

 

In 1991 HBO produced a "made for TV movie" titled "THe Josephine Baker Story."  Lynn Whitefield played the role of the amazing spy, dancer, human rights and racial equality advocate legendary star. 

 

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The Panthéon houses the remains of some of France’s most revered, including Victor Hugo, Marie Curie and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The decision to transfer Ms. Baker’s remains, which are buried in Monaco, comes after a petition calling for the move, started by the writer Laurent Kupferman, caught the attention of Mr. Macron. The petition has garnered nearly 40,000 signatures over the past two years.Mr. Kupferman suggested that Mr. Macron approved the reinterment “because, probably, Josephine Baker embodies the Republic of possibilities.”

 

                       Related Stories:  Trilogy of Women Spies Part I: Mata Hari

                                                   Trilogy of Women Spies Part III: Valerie Plame

                                                    Women Spies IV

 

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