On this day in 1906, Josephine Baker was born in St. Louis, Missouri and christened Freda Josephine McDonald by her mother, Carrie McDonald. Homeless at the age of 12, she was discovered dancing on a street corner three years later and recruited to join the St. Louis Chorus. She is perhaps best remembered for her performances at the Folies Bergères in Paris throughout the 1920s where she danced in her iconic banana skirt and often appeared on stage with her pet cheetah, Chiquita. Through the 1930s, she rose to fame as a singer, dancer, and actress. In 1937 she became a French citizen, and as World War II progressed, she shifted her focus toward supporting the underground resistance movement. After the war, she often returned to the United States where she was active in the American Civil Right Movement, speaking at the 1963 March on Washington and famously refusing to perform before segregated audiences.
Josephine Baker with the Nobel Prize winning political scientist, Ralph J. Bunche, ca. 1960. Image courtesy of the UCLA Special Collections via Calisphere, the Online Archive of California.
You can find more primary sources about activists and entertainers of the twentieth century through Opening History.
Sowing Culture 