 Source: Mercantile Library Collection |
Born: June 3, 1906 Died: April 12, 1975 |
JOSEPHINE BAKER
Born in the slums of the Mill Creek Valley, Josephine Baker quickly rose to the heights of international stardom as a dancer, singer, and actress on the Parisian stage. Growing up in St. Louis, her family was so poor that young Josephine was sent scavenging through garbage cans in Soulard Market to bring home food to eat. She spent much of her time with the musicians who performed in the local taverns and dance halls; listening to their tales of foreign travel and fame, she was inspired to make her own way in the world of show business. Baker started out by playing tunes on a homemade banjo outside the Booker T. Washington Theater. Subsequently she worked her way into a family vaudeville act and then into the chorus line of musical shows. Baker received her first big break in 1921 when she got a part in an all-black musical that opened in New York.
Four years later, Baker moved to Paris and was hired as the lead dancer in the famous Folies-Bergere review. In Europe she discovered opportunities for fame and fortune that were routinely denied to African Americans in the United States. She made the successful transition from stage to screen, appearing in several European movies.
After World War II she began to turn her attention to social and political matters, in particular, the fight against racism. She returned to the United States in 1951, but refused to perform in theaters that designated separate seating areas for white and black audiences. In 1952, she made her homecoming to St. Louis to perform a benefit concert and make a speech at Kiel Auditorium to protest the inferior quality of African-American schools in the city. To demonstrate to the rest of the world that people of different races could live together in harmony, she adopted fourteen children of different nationalities to live in her home.
Throughout the 1950s, Baker remained a controversial figure. Upon challenging
the racial segregation policy at the exclusive Stork Club restaurant in New
York City, she was accused of having communist sympathies