A Colorful History

Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was an American born entertainer and human right’s activist. Recognized as a talented dancer from a young age, she was invited to join a local Vaudeville dance troupe at age 15 and quickly moved on to do shows in New York. Fed up with the discrimination she faced in the U.S., in 1925 Baker would move to France to perform. From her first night she was a huge success, and after a tour of Europe, returned to France to be the star at the Folies Bergère. More than just a talented dancer, Baker was also praised for her acting and singing abilities and became the first African American woman to star in a major motion picture. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Langston Hughes are a few of the many artists that considered her a muse.  During WWII she volunteered as a spy for the French Resistance and used her house in the countryside to harbor refugees from the Nazis. Her resistance work would earn her the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and have her made a Chevalier of the Légion. She would later support the American Civil Rights movement and used her celebrity power to integrate American concert halls. In a show of tolerance and love, she would adopt twelve children from different countries and call them the Rainbow Tribe.