FLAPPER AND ACTIVIST?
Josephine Baker the Tripple Threat!
Joesphine Baker a picture for the celebration of Black History Month
African American artist, Josephine Baker was the 20th century most popular European performing on the big stage! I’m sure you have heard of the banana skirt dance act, she was infamous for, but did you know Baker was a WWII spy?
Yes, that’s correct; you did not read that wrong, the way she contributed to the war was through secret messages to help the French through the war effort, to stop Hitlers take over. Baker’s technique was to use invisible ink on music sheets. In reward of this; she was given, the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour. It is important to reference that this decoration was only given to those who demonstrated brave acts during this fighting era.
Speaking of honor, Josephine Baker was a revolutionary in the civil rights department. Anytime there would be a show where she was the main stage presences if the club, or venue was segregated Baker would give the organization an ultimatum…they must either allow all ticket buyers to be of all shades, or the show would NOT GO ON!
For this, the NAACP, (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) made sure that May 20th, was a celebratory holiday for Miss Baker.
Recently, Baker in the year of 2021 around November, she was chosen for a tomb at the Pantheon, France’s monument. Heroes, like herself, were only placed here!
With the dancer/singer’s life, it was commonly noticed that the theme of her style was parts of traditional African dance.
In her personal life, she adopted 13 kids that had varies ethnicities. Her families nickname was the rainbow tribe, seeing them broke barriers. It was a sign of racial equality.
“You know, friends, that I do not lie to you when I tell you I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad,” Josephine Baker, acknowledged the disparities that People of Color endured, and challenged the status quo, as Black History comes to shore we shall remember her as the trail blazer she was!
