Women's History Month: Josephine Baker

[Aja Gilles]

Born Freda Josephine McDonald in 1906 in St. Louis, Josephine Baker grew up poor and wed for the first time in her early teens. A dancer, she went on to tour the United States with Vaudeville troupes and perform on Broadway before moving to Paris in 1925, where she skyrocketed to fame in the city’s music halls. Baker, whose nicknames included Black Venus and the Black Pearl, also sang and acted in movies, became a major celebrity in Europe, and a symbol of the 1920s Jazz Age. Her scorn for the Nazis’ racism coupled with her gratitude toward France, where she first experienced stardom, led Baker to serve during the war as an operative for the French Resistance. Her performing career enabled her to travel around Europe without attracting suspicion, and she attended numerous parties at embassies, gleaning whatever military and political information she could that might aid the Resistance, often smuggling intelligence secrets on invisible ink on her sheet music. She also used her chateau in southern France to hide Jewish refugees as well as weapons for the cause. She received multiple awards from the French for her contributions to the war effort. Following the war, Baker became active in the American civil rights movement, but continued to reside in France with 12 children she adopted from around the globe, whom she affectionately referred to as “her Rainbow Tribe”.