“I ran away from home. I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States of America because of that terror of discrimination, that horrible beast which paralyses one’s very soul and body.”
Josephine Baker
Introduction
I love writing about inspirational people, and one woman who broke so many barriers was Josephine Baker, who devoted her life to fighting racism. A dancer and singer who endured poverty and hatred for the colour of her skin, she succeeded on Broadway but made the brave decision to leave and make Paris her home. A resistance fighter who embraced France as her home. She was a woman with unbelievable courage and determination and was clearly ahead of her time. A female often cited as a heroine of black history trod the path few dared to walk.
The True Femme
Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, Freda Josephine McDonald was the daughter of Carrie McDonald, a washerwoman and Eddie Carson, a vaudeville drummer. Her father abandoned Josephine shortly after birth, and Carrie would go on to remarry and have several more children. Josephine had to clean rich family houses and was often inadequately treated. In and out of school, the young Baker ran away from home at 13 and found work as a waitress in a club. She met and married Willie Wells but divorced him several weeks later.
During this time, she found a love for dancing, performing in clubs and at street performances. In 1919, Josephine joined the Jones Family Band, touring with them. Also, the Dixie Steppers. She married her second husband, Willie Baker, in 1921. She went from being a chorus girl in the musical Shuffle Along and then, after moving to New York, in Chocolate Dandies alongside Ethel Waters at the Plantation Club—an act which became a crowd favourite.
In 1925, Josephine travelled to Paris to perform in La Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She made an immediate impression on French audiences when, with dance partner Joe Alex, she performed the Danse Sauvage, in which she wore only a feather skirt. The following year, she performed at the Folies Bergère music hall. In a performance called La Folie du Jour, Baker danced wearing little more than a skirt made of 16 bananas. She soon became the rage of Paris, becoming one of the highest-paid performers in Paris, loved by Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. Nicknamed Black Venus and Black Pearl, she received over a thousand marriage proposals.
Going on to sing professionally in 1930, Josephine landed several film roles, such as singing in Zou-Zouand Princesse Tam-Tam. She used the money she earned from these performances to purchase an estate in Castelnaud-Fayrac, in the southwest of France. She named the estate Les Milandes and soon paid to move her family there from St. Louis.
Resistance
Returning to the USA in 1936, she performed in the Ziegfeld Follies. However, she was shocked by the level of racist abuse she received and returned to France crestfallen. She went on to marry the industrialist Jean Lion. As the Second War War broke out, Josephine worked for the Red Cross during the Nazi occupation of France. As a member of the Free French Forces, she entertained forces in Africa and the Middle East. She did work for the French Resistance, smuggling messages in her sheet music and underwear. A lady awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour with the rosette of the Resistance, two of France’s highest military honours.
The Mother
After the war, Baker concentrated on bringing up her family at Les Milandes. She remarried Jo Bouillon, a French orchestra leader, and in 1950, she began to adopt babies from across the world. She adopted 12 children, who she referred to as her rainbow tribe. Her individual experiment brought love and stability to so many children and showed people who were invited to her house how people of different races could live harmoniously.
Civil Rights
During the 1950s, Josephine often returned to the USA to support the Civil Rights movement. She took part in demonstrations outside segregated clubs and concert venues. In 1963, she appeared alongside Martin Luther King in the March on Washington and made a passionate speech that day. So poignant was her appearance that the NAACP named May 20th Josephine Baker Day. Years later, in 1973, Baker performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and received a standing ovation. A reaction that caused her to break down in tears and a performance that marked her comeback to the stage.
Her Passing
In April 1975, Baker performed at the Bobino Theater in Paris. A performance that marked her 50th anniversary of performing in Paris. One that Sophia Loren and Princess Grace of Monaco attended. Just days later, she died in her sleep of a cerebral haemorrhage. She was 68. At her funeral, 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris, and she was honoured with a 21-gun salute, making Baker the first American woman in history to receive French military honours.
