Who was Josephine Baker?
Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she later took the name Baker from her second husband, Willie Baker, whom she married at age 15. Surviving the 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, where the family was living, Josephine Baker ran away a few years later at age thirteen and began dancing in vaudeville and on Broadway. In 1925, Josephine Baker went to Paris where, after the jazz revue La Revue Nègre failed, her comic ability and jazz dancing drew attention of the director of the Folies Bergère. Virtually an instant hit, Josephine Baker became one of the best-known entertainers in both France and much of Europe. Her exotic, sensual act reinforced the creative images coming out of the Harlem Renaissance in America. During World War II Josephine Baker worked with the Red Cross, gathered intelligence for the French Resistance and entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East. After the war, Josephine Baker adopted, with her second husband, twelve children from aroun
Josephine Baker (1906 – 1975) was an entertainer, a civil rights activist, and a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Though American-born, this descendant of South Carolina slaves and Apalachee Indians adopted France as her own when she was still a young woman. Josephine Baker, born Freda Josephine McDonald, was a native of St. Louis, Missouri and came from humble beginnings. Her father, a vaudeville drummer by some accounts, might be the reason behind Josephine’s early attraction to entertainment. As a child, she danced in the streets for change, and by age 15, she joined vaudeville in the St. Louis chorus line. In the immediate years following, Josephine Baker made her way to New York, where she appeared at the Plantation Club and in Broadway chorus lines during a period known as the Harlem Renaissance. Even at this early stage in her career, Baker stood out from the crowd and from the women of her time, and by 1925, she was the highest paid chorus girl in vaudeville
