Black Performer in France:Josphine Baker

Josephine

Josephine Baker played a huge role in both American and French Music. She was a phenomenal woman who broke down racial barriers and assisted in expanding the need of Black musicians around the world.  Unfortunately, Baker had given up on America because of the racist laws in the South and the Music industry's ignorance regarding African American artists.  Baker grew up in St, Louis Missouri in the early 1900’s beginning her career as a performer. She toured with circuits around the South which was a hard time for African Americans living in the South. After joining a musical group that performed in Paris France, Baker loved the fact that she was  free to walk the streets  of  Paris without facing any form of racism from her French counterparts(Kear,1996)

Her career also  skyrocketed in France when she was offered both singing and acting contracts playing the main character in numerous French movies and musicals. 

Baker with French fans

Compared to the lesser roles that she was given in the American film industry, the French industry made Baker a superstar in numerous movies. One French movie that gave its first leading role to a Black women was Zou Zou, where she falls in love with a white male character. This was a surprise to her because she would never have been given this role in the racist American film industry. Ultimately, Baker was in love with the French and she even assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music during the Second World War. As a result, she became the first American-born woman to receive the highest French military honor, the Croix de Guerre. When asked about the difference between France and the United States, she stated, “The French people adopted me immediately, they all went to dark beaches to get dark like Josephine Baker” In this example Baker is illustrating the fact that France was a better place for her to live as a Black women because her skin color and race was not looked down upon (Kear,1996).

As she continued to play a huge role France's musical and film industries, "Place Joséphine Baker" in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was also named in her honor.  Her name has also been incorporated at Paris Plage, a man-made beach along the river Seine "Piscine Joséphine Baker". Bakers's experiences in France, reflected that of many other African artists who were welcomed by  the French with open arms compared to the racist attitudes they  faced in United States.

http://www.biography.com/people/josephine-baker-9195959

Kear, Jon. "Venus noire: Josephine Baker and the Parisian Music-hall'."Parisian Fields (1996): 56.