Josephine Baker was inducted into the Paris Panthon

She was a singer, revue dancer, resistance fighter and civil rights activist. On Tuesday evening, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was the sixth woman – and the first dark skin color – to be inducted into the Paris Panthéon, the French hall of fame for great personalities. The date was chosen carefully: on November 30, 1937, she married the French Jean Lion and has been a French citizen ever since. “Josephine Baker did not defend a skin color. She upheld a certain idea of ​​the human being and was committed to the freedom of the individual,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, who is responsible for admission to the Panthéon, at the ceremony. Even the Eiffel Tower glittered for the Missouri-born artist and fighter, who was born in 1906.

As the illegitimate child of a laundress, Josephine grew up in poor circumstances. When she was eight, she worked as a maid. When she was eleven, she witnessed a pogrom in East St. Louis in which up to a hundred people, mostly African American, were murdered. A formative experience that made her a fighter against racism. The 13-year-old was married against her will and the marriage lasted a few weeks. In the same year, 1919, she first appeared on stage as an extra at the Booker Washington Theater in St. Louis. As a 19-year-old she went on a European tour. Away from the stage, she fought against the Nazi regime – from 1940 she supported the French Resistance – and for the rights of Afro-Americans. She died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1975, shortly after her 50th anniversary on stage, which was celebrated in Paris. Baker’s admission to the Panthéon was also attended by nine of her twelve adopted children. Brian Bouillon made a personal memorial to his mother with his recently published homage “Joséphine, l ?? Universelle”.