Josephine Baker: The activist “Black Venus”
by
John J. Dunphy
(originally published in the 2.4.1998 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
To excel in such a highly competitive field as signing, dancing or acting is certainly no small accomplishment. To excel in all three and earn accolades the world over while engaging in social activism, as did Josephine Baker, is extraordinary.
Born Fred J. McDonald in the Female Hospital of St. Louis, MO on June 3, 1906, this legendary entertainer was always Josephine or “Tumpy” by her family. The name Baker was acquired from her second husband.
She grew up intimately acquainted with poverty. As a child, Baker went to the Soulard Market as 5 am to collect vegetables that had fallen to the ground. She picked up loose coal along the railroad tracks to aid her family. Her brother, Richard, recalled that the future superstar earned money “ringing doorbells at the mansions of the rich people on Westmoreland Avenue” to ask if they had odd jobs she could do.
Josephine Baker’s St. Louis existence was a nomadic one, with her family taking up residence at a variety of locations, including 1526 Gratiot Street, a dwelling on South 14th Street, 2327 Walnut Street, 1537 Papin Street and two different addresses on Bernard Street. One of her most wrenching childhood memories was watching the burning houses across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis during that city’s 1917 race riot when dozens — perhaps even hundreds — of African-Americans were murdered by mobs of rampaging whites.
Young Josephine was educated at the Dumas and L’Ouverture schools, although her attendance became notoriously sporadic after she discovered the Booker Washington Theater at 23rd and Market streets. The dazzling array of movies, review and vaudeville acts enchanted the child and convinced her that there would be no career as rewarding and exciting as show business.
Leaving St. Louis while still in her teens, Baker began building a life as a dancer on the grueling circuit of African-American theaters. Her big break occurred when she joined the cast of the renowned musical, “Shuffle Along,” and enjoyed rave reviews.
In 1925, Baker journeyed to Paris as part of La Revue Negre. Her sensual performances, alluring beauty and effervescent personality soon enshrined her as the rage of France, and she was asked to appear at the Folies Bergere.
One of Baker’s most celebrated performances during this period was the “globe scene” in which an immense globe covered with flowers was lowered from the ceiling. The globe opened to reveal Baker on a mirror, nude except for a raffia skirt. She danced the Charleston, the the globe closed and she was hoisted back to the ceiling.
While in France, Baker also launched her career as a film actress and recording artist. Between 1926 and 1975, she recorded more than 230 songs in French, Italian, English, Spanish, German and Portuguese. Her tours of Europe and South America were consistently sold out, and she returned to the United States to star in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Baker’s exotic beauty and mystique earned her the name “the Black Venus” and made the entertainer one of the first international sex symbols of the modern era. While on tour in Vienna, a young man ran up to Baker, pulled out a gun, and committed suicide, presumably because of unrequited love.
When France fell to the Nazis in World War II, Baker successfully smuggled information for the Resistance. In Morocco, she helped to secure passports for East European Jews who had fled to that North African nation.
After France’s liberation, Baker raised more than 2 million francs at benefits for war victim. She was then decorated with the Medal of Resistance and personally congratulated by Charles de Gaulle for her service to France.
Baker experienced racial discrimination firsthand, both as a child in St. Louis and even on tour after having achieved stardom. In 1951, she received an award from Nobel laureate Ralph Bunche for her fight against prejudice in the theater world. Baker also paid the funeral expenses of Willie McGee, an African-American framed on rape and murder charges in Mississippi.
Her blunt condemnation of racism did not sit well with the American right. While performing in a Los Angeles theater, a heckler shouted, “Why don’t you go back where you came from?” Baker instantly responded, “I am where I came from. And you, where do you come from?” The audience applauded.
Baker became a persistent critic of political regimes that she regarded as oppressive. While in Cuba, she was arrested by Batista, who had the great entertainer fingerprinted and photographed with a number across her chest. A proud, sensitive artist, Baker never forgot that number — 0000492 — and later enthusiastically supported Castro’s revolution.
Her outspokenness brought her other powerful enemies as well. Infuriated by her frequent criticism of America’s racial climate, the CIA schemed to destroy her reputation while the FBI maintained a 1,000-page file on Baker with references to her bisexuality.
While much of white America remained lukewarm toward Baker, she was idolized in France and awarded the Legion of Merit. Two years later, she participated in the March on Washington.
In recognition of her work for human rights, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sent Baker a personal letter stating that “your genuine good will, your deep humanitarian concern and your unswerving devotion to the cause of freedom and dignity will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.”
Baker wished to prove that the world’s peoples could live in peace and harmony, and she set about to demonstrate that conviction by starting a unique family that she called the Rainbow Tribe. Unable to have children of her own, she began adopting children of different races, nationalities and religions in 1954 whom she discovered during her travels. The Rainbow Tribe eventually numbered 12 children and, while Baker had to struggle mightily to finance their upbringing, her idealism and compassion served as an inspiration to the world community.
Josephine Baker died in Paris, the city that adored her, on April 12, 1975. While her recordings and films comprise a noteworthy legacy, an even more profoundly enduring legacy is her lifelong activism for human dignity, justice and freedom.
- John J. Dunphy’s latest book is “Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials,” which includes interviews with veterans of the U.S. Army’s 7708 War Crimes Group.