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paris had never seen anything like it it wasn't ballet or burlesque and it wasn't tribal dance either it was the spirit of an era. the spirit of blaster desire and freedom that took the french capital by storm in the 1920 s. . josephine baker dazzled white audiences with her uninhibited performances. but behind her exuberance lay troubled memories of a childhood marked by poverty and abuse. the searing sting of segregation and

entrenched racism on the other side of the atlantic i. i i i i i. i i. i i would take 40 years until she felt this burden lifted. i gone with the feathers the sequins and glitter it was in military dress that she participated in a defining moment in the american civil rights movement i want. that there is the happiest day of my and i like i just said the baker put her global celebrity to use as

a champion of racial equality this is the story of the world's 1st black superstar . dancing to stay alive dancing to forget the harsh missouri winters. with dance steps passed down through generations of slaves moves that would stay with josephine throughout her life. josephine was just 7 when her mother put her into domestic service in the white homes of st louis. not one of her many

mistresses treated her like a human being. but josephine grit her teeth and carried on until an incident she would never forget. i let the dish water boil too long and the plates got broken. mistress was so angry that she pushed my hands into the boiling water. i screamed. i prayed to god please let me die i'm too miserable. josephine fled just 13 she joined a travelling dogville troupe her mother didn't stop or saying if she's chosen her life let her go.

just sitting there going up in st louis missouri was tough it was not an easy place to be although coming out of the civil war st louis was on the right side it was a union city it was a very tough and very segregated place and black folks were kind of pushed in certain parts of the city it was very poor their opportunities were not great there was of course a burgeoning black middle class a baker did not belong to that and she endured a lot of you know tragedies abuse she married young twice and so she was willing to take risks that others would not. josephine reached for the stars and soon her journey landed her in new york city. at the time the city's music halls were cautiously opening up to african-american entertainers and curious white patrons had begun venturing into black harlem to enjoy the shows josephine knew

that this was the audience she had to win over but in their eagerness to please this new clientele producers only cast light skinned chorus girls josephine was too short too skinny and too dark she was hired as a dresser instead but within just a few weeks she ended up on stage after all. she quickly drew attention as the comic turned at the end of the line crossing her eyes grimacing and flailing her limbs about. audiences roared with laughter and came back night after night just to see her. one night a white woman was waiting to see me after the show she was a producer recruiting for an all black show in paris and she wanted to sign me up. josephine knew that this was her big chance but suddenly she was gripped by

a rare bout of insecurity and. i stayed in my cabin the whole day i was so afraid afraid of the ocean afraid of europe afraid of the unknown. whispered to me don't be scared you see people in paris don't care about our color and he was right. i was amazed to be treated as an equal by a whites and to be able to mingle with. everywhere we were greeted with a smile now that's what it's. josephine instantly fell in love with paris the cafe culture of the white avenues bustling with traffic and lovers kissing openly in public.

but soon it looked like her parisian adventure would end before it had even begun. the show's organizers were worried that love if you neko was too american too prudish and didn't live up to its promise of a cabaret billed as the wildness of africa. with only 3 days left to come up with a show saving idea all eyes turn to josephine. of all the members of the troupe she was the funniest sexiest and boldest. she was designated the star and would end up dancing topless and want to. assign them reach an audience surely wouldn't forget.

critics artists and high society all filed in on opening night. for josephine baker the moment of truth had arrived if she could win them over success was within reach. by south curtains up for a rising star. blinded by the blazing speed slags possessed by some kind of devil i improvise i was spellbound by the music driven one. by the theater packed to the doors even my teeth and ask me before with every leap i seemed to touch the sky and when i returned to earth it felt like it was mine alone should teach mistrust of the world that it was like she was a u.f.o.

look and she landed and did things that were in no manual just a shield bait none of the rules to those girls with us there were something liberating about the way she danced the charleston illinois it was as if her body had a will of its own the way she twisted her legs her eyes bouncing around like lottery balls and peter it was out of this world was a setting of as yet. 2 5 whether as the clown or the seductress the native or the american. josephine became the talk of paris 6 6. she didn't venture her own style playing on the audience's fantasies about africa and black women. the show was a triumph but opinion was divided. while culturally conservative critics perceive

josephine as a symbol of decadence a liberal an up on guard reception through her as the heroine of a much needed european artistic revival. i collected press clippings they were my 1st french lessons she brings the breath of the jungle a primal strength and beauty to the tired stages of western civilization better still she is the black venus who haunted bunting there but also on a more cruel note laugh move you know is nothing more than lamentable transatlantic exhibitionism that's. it's back to the ape in less time than me descended from that . conservative circles where alarmed by the success of the new nick. they viewed it as a danger to moral decency and believe the french were better off visiting the

colonial exhibition a display of the diverse cultures of france's colonial possessions there at least every one was where they belong black africans and replica villages with white visitors strutting through like colonial masters. young africans were even made to dive into fountains to retrieve coins tossed in by visitors. josephine was well aware that she too was being cast as a savage but she played the role on her own terms. wearing nothing more than a belt of bananas the ultimate racist symbol she played on viewers' fantasies about africa seducing them into believing her fabrication.

says josephine of all kinds of fantasies positive and negative. at the time most men of the bush was he surely fantasized about her and even experienced what it was like to live with a negro woman is sorely lacking in guys this fascination was unhealthy but also positive in the sense that those that saw josephine on stage and admired her freedoms even if that wasn't what they called it seemed to mention the capitol back on sasuke even so can i call sentence you're saying others were glad that it confirmed their belief sides are the negro was sort of a strange animal that did strange things such as stripping naked shorts be sakhi kiss between so the augers all about the intellectuals intellectualizing today and

the grateful audience applauded there was something for everyone. today for the. artists and writers adored this dancer who broke all taboos with charm and wit the belgian writers george zimmerman norman became josephine secretary and her lover a stylist they dressed her ernest hemingway frequented her new show called let wrote letters to her. she was a muse for modernist luminaries like calder funding him and picasso who called her the never t.t.'s now. sophisticated and impulsive her temperament fit perfectly with the roaring twenty's a time of getting excess. distraction to forget the loss of loved ones of fathers brothers and lockers never returned home from the war.

to try to settle for a kid the solution to the roaring twenty's more to rip roaring at all it's just people had just emerged from a war and mistook this post war hysteria for freedom. josephine burst onto the scene and put her past her psyche on the lines well everyone else was trying to forget her. but she was after something else she wanted to forget him so she could move forward now to his attorney to prison there's a beautiful continue that. i

was in a new hotel in the room. a charming white. the chambermaid was white the porter who delivered my breakfast also like they took care of my every need as i lounged on my white pillow after all those years of working as a maid for wife. it was absolutely an overwhelming experience for france becomes a citadel a refuge for african americans and she's like come the what the water's warm here leave their cold water over there and come here where you will be welcomed you don't have to deal with these sorts of things and so again. allows the french to have a certain idea pumped up sense of themselves with respect to race relations that's mythic both in baker's mind and certainly in baker's world and what she represented it was very much.

for success was phenomenal. to shoulder it josephine needed support and ally. she found one in pepito up by tino and italian entrepreneur who went by the name of count of a tino he had blair in business ak human. josephine made him her manager and her lover. the peto sense of josephine's appealed to a female market he saw her as the ideal role model for french women fighting for greater equality. with their burnished skin and supple silhouette josephine was the very embodiment of emancipation. but peta launched a brand of beauty products bearing her name a skin darkening lotion called baker's skin and baker fixed brylin teen for women seeking to mimic her glossy cropped hair the line was an instant success in paris

and beyond there was an insatiable appetite for all things josephine baker. nothing could stop la baker as the french had named her she started singing even at the opera performed classical dance and launched an acting career. that was modern history you know the velo the woman you know taking taking the city taking to the street being in one clubs dancing normally and boldly bursting into song and then she learned the nakedness was wonderful but she also became a fashion icon. josephine was in demand across europe. she set off on tour.

for almost 2 years she traveled from germany to romania sweetening to italy. everywhere crowds flocked to see the dancer who defied the constraints of convention. she received thousands of love letters and hundreds of marriage proposals the devotion she inspired was almost overwhelming. she didn't want us to be thinking about the drama over white it net to be the 1st international black so i think she wanted us to see it as a divine comedy. of comedy to find the disappointments. such as the fact. not one of the white men she had loved since arriving in france had proposed to her. josephine's love like mir the role she played in movies. men had fun with her but marriage was out of the

question. she responded in her typical style in a song with a smile. if you think this young man who might long long. deep. love her all of a favored the long term goal was long down the road to the mom or maybe just. being a mom. all be a good mom. life in europe wasn't perfect but this is where josephine took destiny into her own

hands she became a leading figure in the entertainment industry discovered the power of being a star. but after 11 years she longed to return home to settle the score and show americans what she was made of. i saw blackpool waiting on the wharf and they come to see me we disembarked all the black folk crowded the gangway. realized then that they were porters chauffeurs me waiting for their employers i wanted to laugh at myself. at the hotel things got worse

a suite for miss baker the receptionist eyed me suspiciously there must be a mistake my manager protested but they just repeated this there must be a mistake. that was it nothing could be done in the eyes of the receptionist i was just a negress. from one hotel to the next the same frosty smile the same shrug of the shoulders the same outright refusal appalling. josephine at hope that the success she did cheat in europe would shield her from racism in the us. but it didn't after her opening on broadway scathing reviews showed critics couldn't see beyond the color of her skin. she thought she was

coming back as a star of a major broadway show say fell follies and she assumed that she would try up with critics as well as with audiences and when the show opened the reviews were patronising to contemptuous basically the tone was we're trying to be tolerant about it but who is this little negress you know who left some time ago as a tiny little player in the theater and then mysteriously achieved all this fame and paris. theater and humiliated josephine return paris. factory and i got an attack dog if you like you do what you do don't do it on the media if you keep the feedback was.

bad. was it with the dogs or they had dug up that you know they kept on him i thought that by giving out put up and run with a family imagining that question that they could top that. but her enthusiasm was a performance. she was glad to be back in paris but her heart was filled with sorrow. the peto had died suddenly while she was away. for 10 years he had been by her side her companion manager part. without him. she would have to reorder her life. darling combet said to me don't be for long the french language has such sweet

words like the word for law and so i went to gallows and cocktails i was a patron here chairwoman there. that's when i met. a businessman he was young and rich women dorrit him but he only had eyes for me it was flattering we got married i became mad and johnny only i had a french passport and i was expecting a baby i'd no longer felt for an. evening . it was like a dream come true josephine had married a fairy tale prince at 1st she loved the role of madame john the young but she quickly tired of it she was a free woman not a housewife. after

a miscarriage she decided this wasn't a life she wanted she divorced and returned to the stage of the performance alone was no longer fulfilling. josephine wanted to give her life a deeper meaning she found it in the resistance against nazi occupation you don't. get up at 3. to live on they leave because they're going to be delayed and although i asked for only one thing it is to serve the country to which i am eternally grateful that france made me what i am accepting me unconditionally i was ready to give her my life. the war gave josephine the opportunity to serve a greater cause she became a spy for the french resistance frequently risking her life. while on tour across

europe she eavesdropped and flirted with high ranking officials to gather sensitive information which she concealed in invisible ink on her sheet music. and with it the many levels. seen a biker evil but easy for you that. will it can help to be just a fiend bacon the customs officers asked for my papers but all they learned was autographs i was able to pass on the plans out and lives. she was protected by her fame wherever she went she introduced the manager side as her assistant shock up to a fellow intelligence agent for the resistance. undercover mission showed the world what she was made up. 7 7 behind the star was a fearless fighter. from the. one american soldiers landed in morocco in november

1942 josephine was already there working for the resistance. a perfect symbol of the franco american alliance she sang to the troops to boost their morale. last. c week.

from iraq oh to syria josephine performed for black and white americans europeans and for arabs. she dreamed of a better unified world after the ultimate defeat of the nazis. i was leading the way to anything to hear it i get it. i hated it. thank. god. i just have been returned from the war a decorated heroine of the french resistance. she married the conductor's job we are and shortly after accepted an invitation to sing in the united states. she was

sure that after having defeated the nazis her country of birth would it last be able to face down its racist demons. but when she arrived in new york she saw that nothing had changed. once again hotels refused her room. she and her white husband they were told might have been the guests from the south. so i decided to leave. if a star like me was treated that way in new york i hated to think what could happen down south i made up my mind to look the beast in the eye. i planned my trip well i wouldn't travel as josephine baker the french star

i wanted to be a simple black american and ordinary news brown i found the name amusing. everywhere glance. there were 2 of everything 2 waiting lounges 2 coffee shops 2 restaurant. i went into the coffee shop with a sign saying. as i passed the table everyone stared at me 2 sandwiches please i asked the waitress quickly handed me my sandwiches and took my money as if trying to get rid of me. then i went into the black folks coffee shop. i expected at least to see an approving smile a knowing glance not a chance. all i got was scowling disapproving faces some people even looked horrified.

we cannot at all underestimate the risk that she did take that there were a lot of people who would have done that. but the problem again is she's josephine baker sheens going into an establishment in a segregated establishment you know thumbing her nose at customs many social customs and certain parts of the south that has simply been accepted as that is the way it's going to be it's not going to change and you know black folks know their place and here she comes giving them ideas about them moving out of their place and then she goes and. that the problem was she going to stay and fight but she going to deal with the aftermath 3 the repercussions of her actions therein lies the critique on the one hand there was fierce pride that she had made it and

on the other hand there was a great deal of criticism because only she had made it. and so she did not necessarily open doors. critics from the ranks of the civil rights movement denounced josephine baker saying that after 20 years away she had no idea about the life of african-americans. now she began to realize how her fame had shielded her from the brutality of segregation. and so she decided to put her celebrity to use once more this time for the civil rights movement. in 1951 she returned to the u.s. to perform but this time she set out her conditions before crossing the atlantic. it was simple i wouldn't sing anywhere my people were not accepted i would only

agree to come to the united states if black patrons were it needed. to my shins. feeling certain the time was right to bring josephine back home the organizer agreed to all her terms. i it was written into her contract that any theater she played at had to let any ticket holder enter regardless of race color or creed her performance in miami was historic with black patrons admitted to an exclusive venue for the 1st time a triumph for desegregation the audience was in tears.

the concert made headlines across the country at last josephine had found a way to use her success to support the fight for racial equality but. when he found that funny thing because i know you can't think of the abolition of the only thing making all i know you can't be good you have to be thought a lot of people for the moment but then an incident soured her sense of success. one evening she arrived with friends at the prestigious stork club in manhattan an hour after she placed her order she noticed that others around her were being served by a service to her table had all but stopped. at 1st impatient she was now infuriated and stormed out. she called her lawyer prominent figure in the civil

rights movement. the next day activists picketed the. a club calling for its liquor and cabaret licenses to be revoked because of racial bias. the affair put josephine on the f.b.i.'s radar its director j. edgar hoover opened the file accusing her of communists colleagues of. let me. know it was a serious allegation josephine was put on the f.b.i. watch list. she left for latin america where she publicly condemned her country's racial policies. in response the f.b.i. piled pressure on the latin american countries in which she was scheduled to perform. one by one her concerts were cancelled and peru colombia cuba and haiti. barred from reentering the us she was devastated.

i had done my best during the war to fight the nazis and their racist policies but i saw the same attitude just as insidious just as ugly in those who had opposed the nazis. so i went back to france since before the war the place i felt most at home was at my chateau in dot. com. for more than 30 years the french had a company josephine on her journey they revered her as a dancer singer and actress and honored her as a heroine of the resistance. she was awarded the legion of honor at her chateau. latour oh no i still don't i still say that all the details i do.

but there. also was a. song. and yet something was still missing she yearned to be loved in her homeland where she was still refused entry. but in the us times were slowly changing a young minister martin luther king was leading the civil rights movement in august 1963 he called on people of all color to join the march on washington to protest segregation. josephine had achieved with no other black woman before her head and martin luther king wanted her to be there. with the help of attorney general robert kennedy josephine was allowed to return she was the only woman to speak at the march.

by. the. new. josephine and this major event that we now know was mostly organized by male civil rights leaders the women who were involved pushed to the side that's

apparent this is that it matters josephine arrives like an emissary. from abroad and that international aspect is not to be a little and she is wearing a miss sex symbol the glamour of jade the girl as she is wearing the uniform of the free french army and she didn't have to come you know the just the fact that she flew across the atlantic not for her career but to link generations of black achievement of black entertainment and of black struggle. was absolutely thrilling. until the march on washington every time i went to the states my stomach was in knots for the 1st time i returned to france with a sense of freedom. my struggle had been right i went to washington to pass

on the tour to those who want to listen. so that they could have the same chances i had without having to run away now that my message had been heard i could leave. josephine baker became the 1st international black star. but in a foreign country left to her own devices her battle against racism had been a lonely one. in her final years her fight for justice resonated with the world finally ready for change. purse was a stork journey both on and off the stage. i.

don't remember now. i have a good line. you know i can pick up. my coffee off and it. because i didn't imagine not having an affair he called me and i said to do but it will. do. my. i don't. need more.

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