Joséphine Baker

Freda Josephine MacDonald, known as Joséphine Baker, was born in 1906 in the United States. Since 2021, she has rested in the Panthéon, alongside the "great men [and women] whom the homeland is grateful for." In 1925, at the age of 16, she was a dancer on Broadway and followed the troupe to Paris. The lead of the revue became the Black icon of the Roaring Twenties. Clad in a simple loincloth, she enthralled audiences and outraged puritans. In 1931, she won the hearts of Parisians with the famous song "J’ai deux amours" written by Vincent Scotto. Becoming French in 1937, Joséphine fought for Free France and was decorated with the Resistance Medal in 1946. A civil rights activist in the United States, she was the only woman to speak alongside Martin Luther King, in uniform, during the "March on Washington" in 1963. Fearless, generous, idealistic (and spendthrift), she lived in a princess’s castle in Périgord surrounded by her 12 adopted children. She passed away in 1975, after a final performance. Farewell and thank you, artist!