• DANCER, SINGER, & ACTRESS
• A cultural phenomenon who became one the MOST FAMOUS Americans in France during the twentieth century
• Born Freda Josephine McDonald, she worked as a maid for rich white families as a child
• At eleven years old, she witnessed firsthand the 1917 Saint Louis race riots
• Joined a local vaudeville group, and later toured with a traveling show
• Big break came in 1922 when she performed in Shuffle Along, a successful all-Black Broadway musical
• Traveled to Paris with a theater company, and gained instant notoriety when she performed the 'Danse sauvage' (Savage Dance) wearing nothing but a skirt made of feathers
• Became the HIGHEST paid entertainer in the world, cultivating a lavish and sometimes ostentatious lifestyle, such as buying a cheetah for a pet
• French fashion soon revolved around her, as women copied everything about her, even powdering their skin to look darker
• Acted in both silent and speaking films
• During World War II, she spied for the French Resistance while performing in Germany and Italy, smuggling pictures of military installations and other sensitive information back to the Allies
• Earned the rank of sublieutenant in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and was awarded the Medal of Resistance and the Cross of War from the French government for her service
• Supported the American Civil Rights Movement by boycotting segregated theaters on U.S. tours
• ONLY woman invited to speak at the 1963 March on Washington
• Formed what she dubbed her "Rainbow Tribe" by adopting twelve children of different nationalities
• Rumors of a relationship between Baker and famous artist Frida Kahlo have never been confirmed, but Baker was bisexual and they were in Paris at the same time, so it's certainly possible
• Lived in France for the rest of her life, in large part because of the institutional racism in the United States
• When she died in 1975, she became the FIRST American woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, and in 2021, she became the FIRST Black woman to be buried in Paris's Pantheon monument

Open for Debate

Because many of her performances were of characters "exotic" or "primitive" in nature, Baker was criticized by some for exploiting, rather than defying, racial stereotypes.

Bibliography: Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.
Harrison, Vashti. Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Print.
Lee, Chana K. "Baker, Josephine." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2008, 185.
Mitchell, Saundra. 50 Unbelievable Women and their Fascinating (and True!) Stories. New York: Puffin Books, 2016. Print.
​Kettler, Sara. (2019, July 16). Behind Frida Kahlo’s Real and Rumored Affairs With Men and Women. https://www.biography.com/news/frida-kahlo-real-rumored-affairs-men-women
Simon, Scott. (2021, August 28). A New Spirit Joins The Panthéon. https://www.npr.org/2021/08/28/1031899119/opinion-a-new-spirit-joins-the-pantheon

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