Woman of the Week: Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was a singer and dancer that became very popular in the 1920s. She also devoted much of her life to further the civil rights cause.
By Emma Bartley
Josephine Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. She spent her early life in poverty. To help support her family, Josephine cleaned houses and babysat as early as the age of 8. She learned how to dance and found success on Broadway; she moved to France in the 1920s with a performance. She soon became so popular that she was one of Europe’s highest-paid performers of the time.
Josephine Baker tried to return to the US in 1936, but she was treated so poorly because of her race that she quickly moved back to France. She worked for the French Resistance during WWII, where she snuck hidden messages in her sheet music. Because of her help, she received 2 of France’s highest military honors.
After WWII, Baker began to adopt babies from around the world. She adopted 12 children in all, and she often invited people to her house to show that people of different races could live together in harmony.
Later in life, in the 1950s and 1960s, she devoted her time to fighting segregation and racism in the US. She participated in demonstrations and boycotted segregated concert venues and clubs. In 1963, Baker participated in the March on Washington, alongside MLK Jr.
Even though Josephine Baker was rejected by the US because of her color for many decades, in 1973 she performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and received a standing ovation.
Josephine died of a cerebral hemorrhage (her brain bled) in 1975, and she was buried with military honors. She was, in fact, the first American woman in history to be buried in France with military honors. On the day of her funeral, more than 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris to witness the procession.
Josephine Baker is important because she fought for what she believed in and follower her dreams. She never depended on anyone to provide things for her. She relied on herself and her own strength, and she always strove to help others.