In a first, France inducts Black woman to Pantheon
PARIS — France is inducting Josephine Baker — Missouri-born cabaret dancer, French World War II spy and civil rights activist — into its Pantheon, the first Black woman honored in the final resting place of France’s most revered luminaries.
On Tuesday, a coffin carrying soils from the U.S., France and Monaco — places where Baker made her mark — will be deposited inside the domed Pantheon monument overlooking the Left Bank of Paris. Her body will stay in Monaco, at the request of her family.
French President Emmanuel Macron decided on her entry into the Pantheon, responding to a petition lobbying for her “pantheonization.” In addition to honoring an exceptional figure in French history, the move is meant to send a message against racism and celebrate U.s.-french connections.
“She embodies, before anything, women’s freedom,” said Laurent Kupferman, the author of the petition for the move.
Baker was born in 1906, in St. Louis, Mo. At 19, she moved to France following a job opportunity.
She met immediate success on the Theatre des Champs-elysees stage, where she appeared topless and wearing a famed banana belt. Her show, embodying the colonial time’s racist stereotypes about African women, caused both condemnation and celebration.
In September 1939, as France and Britain declared war against Nazi Germany, Baker got in touch with the head of the French counterintelligence services. She started working as an informant, traveling, getting close to officials and sharing information hidden on her music sheets.
After the war, Baker got involved in anti-racist politics. She fought against American segregation during a 1951 performance tour of the U.S., causing her to be targeted by the FBI, labeled a communist and banned from her homeland for a decade.
She rebuilt her career, but in 1975 she died of a brain hemorrhage. She was buried in Monaco.
The Pantheon, built at the end of the 18th century, honors 72 men and five women, including Baker.