By the time the N.A.A.C.P. celebrated Josephine Baker (1906-1975) with an honorary day, she was so renowned for her career as a dancer, singer, member of the French resistance, and civil rights activist, one might only wonder why it took so long. The answer most likely lies in her experience of touring the United States (on her French passport) in 1948. Mary Dudziak’s article on Baker’s civil rights activism tells the story:
“In 1948, Josephine Baker sailed to New York, hoping to gain the recognition in the country of her birth that she had achieved in France. She had returned to the United States to appear in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1935 but had received devastating reviews. In 1948 as well, she did not find the critical acclaim she had hoped for; what she did find was racial discrimination. She and her white husband, Jo Bouillon, were refused service by thirty-six New York hotels. Baker then decided to see for herself what life was like for an average African-American woman in the South. Leaving her husband behind, she traveled south using a different name, and she wrote for a French magazine about such experiences as getting thrown out of white waiting rooms at railroad stations. Becoming Josephine Baker again, she gave a speech at Fisk University, an African-American school in Tennessee, and she told the audience that her visit to Fisk was the first time since she had come to the United States that she felt at home. After this trip, she told a friend that she would dedicate her life to helping her people.”
What a triumph it must have been for the N.A.A.C.P. to have someone of Baker’s renown to advocate for civil rights. She attended demonstrations and insisted that any club she performed in, no matter where in the US, admitted all races. Just three years later, a full day’s celebration was arranged at the Theresa Hotel at the corner of 7th Ave and 125th Street in Harlem. It was a huge occasion.
“On her special day, Josephine rode on the back of a cream-colored convertible as the 27-car motorcade moved slowly down 7th Avenue. 100,00 people lined the street and hung from upstairs windows and fire escapes for a chance to see her” (Caravantes). In this wonderful panoramic image, in a room full of people obviously delighted to be there, she is seated at the head of the table beside Thurgood Marshall, first Black member of the Supreme Court. “That night, the mayor of New York, Vincent Impellitteri, gave a cocktail party in her honor. Five thousand people danced that evening in the Golden Gate Ballroom. Such a turnout encouraged Josephine to continue her tour to push for civil rights. At that point in her life, it appeared nothing could stop her” (ibid).
At her death, she was held in such esteem in France that she became the first American women to be given a state funeral. Furthermore, in November 2021, she became the first Black woman to be buried in the French Panthéon.
Rare. No copies in OCLC or listed on artprice.com
Caravantes, P., The Many Faces of Josephine Baker (Chicago, 2015) p.110; Dudziak, M.L. “Josephine Baker, Racial Protest, and the Cold War” in The Journal of American History Vol. 81. No. 2 (Sept, 1994), p.548.
