In French Pantheon, Josephine Baker makes history yet again

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France is inducting Josephine Baker -- Missouri-born cabaret dancer, Second World War spy and civil rights activist -- into its Pantheon, the first Black woman honoured in the final resting place of France's most revered luminaries.

PARIS -- France is inducting Josephine Baker -- Missouri-born cabaret dancer, French Second World War spy and civil rights activist -- into its Pantheon, the first Black woman honoured in the final resting place of France's most revered luminaries.

Baker was born in 1906, in St. Louis, Mo. At 19, having already divorced twice, had relationships with men and women, and started a performing career, she moved to France following a job opportunity. Baker's career took a more serious turn after that, as she learned to speak five languages and toured internationally. She became a French citizen after her marriage in 1937 to industrialist Jean Lion, a Jewish man who later suffered from anti-Semitic laws of the collaborationist Vichy regime.

That year, she notably brought into her troupe several spies working for the Allies, allowing them to travel to Spain and Portugal. "She risks the death penalty or, at least, the harsh repression of the Vichy regime or of the Nazi occupant," Letang said. Baker also organized concerts for soldiers and civilians near combat zones. After the defeat of the Nazis, she went to Germany to sing for former prisoners and deportees freed from the camps.

 

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