Joséphine Baker

Josephine Baker emerged from impoverished origins in St. Louis to advance through vaudeville circuits, New York stages, and Parisian cabarets, earning acclaim throughout Europe prior to her twenty-first birthday. Later efforts to match that early success proved difficult, yet she channeled considerable energy into opposing discrimination, particularly while aiding Allied forces across wartime Europe and participating in America's Civil Rights campaigns.

Freda Josephine McDonald entered the world on June 3, 1906, and navigated a difficult youth amid St. Louis slums. An audition at a local variety theater prompted her departure from home at thirteen, where she supported herself mainly through waitressing while pursuing sporadic stage work. By 1920 she had married, divorced, and wed again, adopting the surname Baker from her second husband for professional use. Her breakthrough arrived the next year in the chorus of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's all-Black revue Shuffle Along. An energetic dancer and constant onstage comedian, she drew notice that led to a larger role in the duo's 1924 production Chocolate Dandies. The show established her as a New York star and brought further attention through Harlem appearances at The Cotton Club and The Plantation Club. In 1925 she traveled to Paris with La Revue Nègre. Her distinctive movement, open sensuality, and minimal costumes, including a feather skirt, found immediate favor on the Continent, generating instant popularity. She soon launched her own club, Chez Josephine, and appeared in the 1927 film La Sirene des Tropiques.

During the early 1930s she completed her first studio recordings, though her lively stage manner became somewhat restrained before recording engineers. Two additional films, Zou Zou and Princess Tam-Tam, preceded her 1936 return to America to headline Ziegfeld's Follies alongside Bob Hope and Fanny Brice. The production encountered resistance from cultural critics who condemned its boldness and from venues that denied the star entry, resulting in limited success. When Brice's illness halted performances, Baker ended her contract and departed for Paris. Marriage to sugar magnate Jean Lion secured her French citizenship, yet the Nazi invasion two years later exposed the couple to further prejudice because of his Jewish heritage.

Baker joined the French Resistance at an early stage and contributed throughout World War II by forwarding vital documents from France on multiple occasions, serving as a sub-lieutenant in the French Air Force's Women's Auxiliary, volunteering with the Red Cross to aid Belgian refugees entering the country, and performing for troops across Northern Africa. After the war she received the Medal of Resistance and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. She married bandleader Jo Bouillon and attempted a return to performing that required several years of Paris cabaret work, followed by engagements in Cuba and another American visit. In the early 1950s her Civil Rights advocacy drew attention through integrated audiences at a Miami nightclub and the cancellation of an Atlanta show after she was denied hotel access. She also challenged segregation in Las Vegas before launching a worldwide farewell tour.

Although she resumed stage appearances in 1959, much of the late 1950s and early 1960s centered on raising her twelve adopted children of varied ethnic backgrounds, whom she called the rainbow tribe. Financial demands associated with the family prompted some of her intermittent returns to performance. She joined the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington and presented four Carnegie Hall concerts to benefit the movement. A heart attack in 1964 largely ended her career, aside from a brief comeback shortly before her death from a stroke in 1975.