By Jay Ann Ramirez
TORONTO – Josephine Baker — a U.S.-born dancer, informant for the French Resistance, and activist fighting against racism and anti-Semitism — made history Tuesday after she was symbolically inducted into France’s Pantheon.
Baker is now the first Black woman to receive the country’s top recognition.
The French Embassy in Washington announced Tuesday, Nov. 30, on Twitter that Baker “is an eternalized member of the French Pantheon, her legacy is rooted in the soil of her beloved homes and in the memory of agents of freedom everywhere.”
#JosephineBaker is an eternalized member of the French Panthéon, her legacy is rooted in the soil of her beloved homes and in the memory of agents of freedom everywhere. Thank you and merci. pic.twitter.com/YnsBoWlfdN
— French Embassy U.S. (@franceintheus) November 30, 2021
The recognition comes after a petition was started by Laurent Kupferman on May 8, asking French President Emmanuel Macron to honor Baker in the Pantheon — a place reserved for the remains of the country’s national heroes like writer Victor Hugo, Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie, and Swiss-born French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The move, according to www.franceintheus.org, aims to honor Baker as an iconic figure, who moved to France even if she was born in America.
Macron, in his speech, described Baker as a “war hero, fighter, dancer, singer, a Black woman defending Black people, but first and foremost a woman defending the human race both American and French.”
“She enters here with all those who chose France, who loved France, who loved France so deeply, who saw France stumbled but continued to love it, who saw France brought to its knees but fought to free France up on its own feet again. They are French by the blood they shed, the battles they fought, and the love they gave. She enters here as a reminder to us all. She’s a reminder to us all who so stubbornly try to forget the indescribable beauty of our shared destiny,” Marcon said.
“Josephine Baker, you enter our Pantheon, and you are joined by the winds of fancy and of daringness. Because it is one particular idea of liberty and celebration that enters with you,” the French president added.
The tribute was held in front of the mausoleum, where Baker’s cenotaph is placed at the center.
Baker, whose original name is Freda Josephine McDonald, moved to France in the 1920s and became a famous music hall performer when she was featured at the Folies-Bergère, a huge tourist attraction in Paris.
She worked as a nurse in the Red Cross and a performer and spy at the same time for the French Resistance during World War II.
She was visited the United States to join public demonstrations that fought for civil rights.
Josephine Baker died on April 12, 1975, due to a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 68.
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