orig. Freda Josephine McDonald
born June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.
died April 12, 1975, Paris, France
U.S.-born French entertainer.
She joined a dance troupe at age 16 and soon moved to New York City, where she performed in Harlem nightclubs and on Broadway in Chocolate Dandies (1924). She went to Paris in 1925 to dance in La Revue nègre . To French audiences she personified the exoticism and vitality of African American culture, and she became Paris's most popular music-hall entertainer, receiving star billing at the Folies Bergère . In World War II she worked with the Red Cross and entertained Free French troops. From 1950 she adopted numerous orphans of all nationalities as "an experiment in brotherhood." She returned periodically to the U.S. to advance the cause of civil rights.
Josephine Baker.
H. Roger-Viollet