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Black artist Josephine Baker honoured at France's Pantheon - CBC.ca

Black artist Josephine Baker honoured at France's Pantheon - CBC.ca

Black artist Josephine Baker honoured at France's Pantheon - CBC.ca
Nov 30, 2021 1 min, 53 secs

Josephine Baker — the U.S.-born entertainer, anti-Nazi spy and civil rights activist — was inducted into France's Pantheon on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman to receive the nation's highest honour.

Baker joined other French luminaries honoured at the site, including philosopher Voltaire, scientist Marie Curie and writer Victor Hugo.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to "a war hero, fighter, dancer, singer; a Black woman defending Black people but first of all, a woman defending humankind.

Josephine Baker fought so many battles with lightness, freedom, joy.".

"Josephine Baker, you are entering into the Pantheon because, [despite] born American, there is no greater French [woman] than you," he said.

"They were her public, people who really loved her," he said.

The French army choir sang the French Resistance song, prompting strong applause from the public.

Baker was the only woman to speak before him at the 1963 March on Washington.

"The simple fact to have a Black woman entering the Pantheon is historic," Black French scholar Pap Ndiaye, an expert on U.S.

[There was] the possibility to sit at a cafe and be served by a white waiter, the possibility to talk to white people, to [have a] romance with white people," Ndiaye said.

Today, Josephine Baker becomes the first American-born, first Black woman, and first entertainer to be inducted into the Panthéon.

Her shows were controversial, Ndiaye stressed, because many activists believed she was "the propaganda for colonization, singing the song that the French wanted her to sing.".

"Josephine Baker can be considered to be the first Black superstar.

Phillips said one of the ladies who grew up in the castle and met with Baker said: "Can you imagine a Black woman in the 1930s in a chauffeur-driven car — a white chauffeur — who turns up and says, `I'd like to buy the 1,000 acres here?"'.

In 1938, Baker joined what is today called LICRA, a prominent anti-racist league.

She then joined the French Resistance, using her performances as a cover for spying activities during World War II.

In 1944, Baker became second-lieutenant in a female group in the air force of the French Liberation Army of Gen.

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