La Vénus noire, Josephine Baker
Paris of the 1920s was a magnet for
Americans of all stripes—some who came for a visit and others who chose the
city as home. In fact, the first several years of the decade saw the number of American
inhabitants rise from about 6,000 to over 30,000. Jazz Age musicians such as
Sidney Bechet were charmed by the city and found appreciation for their art as
well as relief from the rampant racism of their home country. Arriving with
Bechet and La Revue Nègre in 1925 was a nineteen-year-old headliner born Freda
Josephine McDonald. Who could have imagined that the skinny child who grew up
in poverty in St. Louis would go on to become the toast of the French capital?
But Baker was more than just another
pretty face. For her help during the French Resistance during the Second World
War, she received the Croix de guerre
and France’s highest honor, the Légion d’honneur.
A Civil Rights activist, she refused to perform for segregated audiences in this
country. Financially ruined at the end of her life, Baker survived through the
efforts of her friend Princess Grace of Monaco. At Baker's death in 1975, she was
accorded a state funeral at the Église de la Madeleine in Paris. To this day postcards and posters featuring the image of La Bakair, as the French pronounce her name, can be seen throughout the city.
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