Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3 ,1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother, Carrie McDonald, was a washerwoman descended from Apalachee Indians and black slaves from South Carolina. Eddie Carson, her father, was a drummer who soon left the family. He was called a ‘spinach’ by locals, a reference to his Spanish blood.
As the eldest child, she would work the winters shoveling snow from house to house, and in the summer offer to babysit or scrub floors. Giving some of her earnings back to the family, she would save her nickels to attend shows at the Booker T. Washington Theater, a black vaudeville house at 23rd and Market in St. Louis.
There in the small, dark theater, Black entertainers like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith performed regularly. Josephine would lose herself in a world of bright lights, costumes, and music.
The family lived in a one-room shack in Boxcar Town, an area in East St. Louis.
During the nights of July 1 and 2, white mobs would invade the predominately black areas of East St. Louis during the riot of 1917. Many homes were burned and looted. Rioters killed and beat black people indiscriminately,
She would be awakened by her mother, begging her to get dressed. They grabbed what money they had and as they headed out, “the sky was already red with flames, the night air filled with screams.”
In later years, she would describe this as the worst memory of her childhood.
After the events of 1917, her one ambition was to escape poverty and from St. Louis. At the age of 13, she married Willie Wells in a union that wasn’t to last. She found her way out with the Jones Family Band, where she learned to play the trombone.
In 1922, she joined the cast of Shuffle Along, which became the first successful African American musical, running for more than 500 performances. At 15-years-old, she was too young but lied, replying that she was instead 17. She remained with the show as it toured the United States until it closed January 1924.
One evening, she would be introduced to Caroline Dudley, who along with partner Andre Daven, were producing a black vaudeville show in Paris and had come to the U.S. in search of dancers. Impressed by Josephine’s talent, they asked her to join them.
She would sail to Paris on September 15, 1925 aboard the RMS Berengaria to appear in La Revue Negre, one of the 25 dancers and musicians hired. Arriving the morning of September 22, they were told that the show was to open in 10 days.
At 10:30 PM on October 2, the show opened to a packed house… the lights dimmed, the curtain rose. La Revue Negre was a success and Josephine Baker had taken Paris by storm.
At a time when many Americans were beginning to feel the hardships of the Great Depression, Josephine Baker was worth more than $1 million dollars.
She posed for Pablo Picasso, who described her as the “Nefertiti of now.”
Albert Einstein came backstage following a show one evening, complimenting her on her performance.
As part of the local Parisienne community, when she heard that a family could not pay its coal bill, she took care of it. She became involved in the affairs of the local orphanage.
World War II began September 1, 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland. She volunteered with the war efforts, joining the Red Cross putting together boxes of food, finding housing for the homeless.
She was approached by the French military police to become a spy and became a member of the French resistance. There, she was trained to handle a pistol and was reportedly able to shoot the flame off of a candle 20 yards away, she learned karate, German and Italian.
At the end of her training, she was given a handful of cyanide pills she ever find herself in a situation she could not handle.
On August 28, 1963, Josephine took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with 250,000 other civil rights supporters. At the time it was the largest civil rights gathering in America and where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech. The following year, the U.S, Congress would pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
I had no talent — my body just did what the music told me to do.
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Works cited:
- Beardsley, Eleanor. “Josephine Baker Is the First Black Woman to Be Inducted into France's Pantheon.” NPR, NPR, 30 Nov. 2021
- Hammond, Bryan, and Patrick O'Connor. Josephine Baker. Little, Brown, 1991.
- Norwood, Arlisha R. “Josephine Baker.” National Women's History Museum
- Schroeder, Alan, and Heather Lehr Wagner. Josephine Baker. Chelsea House, 2006.
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