Video: A coffin that bears handfuls of earth from four places where Josephine Baker lived (but not her remains) before its placement in the Panthéon in Paris on November 30, 2021. © Julien De Rosa, AFP. Photo: Josephine Baker circa 1925. Credit: Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Society FrancePanthéon Honors Its First Black Woman
French-American entertainer Josephine Baker, recognized for her role in the French Resistance and in her fight for human rights, has entered France’s Panthéon – and she’s the first Black woman to be honored at the mausoleum.
“Dear Josephine,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, “you are entering this Panthéon because although you were born American there is no one more French than you.”
Baker, unanimously appreciated in France, fled the United States and its segregation ways in 1925, and found solace in France where she served as a lieutenant in the country’s air force during World War II, going as far as sending reports to London through her music sheets… in invisible ink! Later in life, the dancer and singer adopted 12 children from different ethnic backgrounds, thus creating a “rainbow” family.
