During World War II, Josephine Baker helped her adopted country by working as a spy for the French resistance, collecting information about German troop locations, airfields, harbors, and carrying messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music or pinned to her underwear. She also toured to entertain British, French and American soldiers, and hid Jewish refugees and weapons in her home—a castle in the heart of the Périgord region of France named Les Milandes. On May 23, 1944, she enrolled in the French Air Force, received the rank of lieutenant, and was assigned to Bataillon 117. For her service to the nation, she would later receive the Croix de Guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by French General Charles de Gaulle.
In 1947, she married French composer and conductor Jo Bouillon—though their union would also end in divorce. With him she started adopting orphaned children from around the world, and referred to them as “Her Rainbow Tribe,”partly because her last miscarriage and hysterectomy had left her barren, but also because she believed in equality for all, no matter their nationality, religion or race. For some time, she lived with her children at the Milandes, calling her home The World Village. Josephine created a theme park around the castle, with a J-shaped pool, a farm, even an African village replica. She returned to the stage in the 1950's to finance this project.
In 1951, she took another trip to the United States, but she and her husband were refused reservations at 36 hotels in New York because she was black. She drew a well-publicized attention when she accused Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in Manhattan of racism for not providing her service. Actress Grace Kelly, who was present that night, outraged, rushed over to Baker and stormed out with her entire party and Baker, swearing never to return. Baker also confronted Columnist Walter Winchell, a friend of hers and patron of the club, for not intervening. In return, he rebuked her publicly, and denounced her as a communist. Josephine responded by taking on a crusade for racial equality, writing articles about segregation in the United States, and refusing to perform in clubs or theaters that were not integrated—a battle she ultimately won, beginning with a Miami club. A parade in front of 100,000 people in Harlem was held in honor of her new title: NAACP's(*) "Woman of the Year." But the communist
accusations followed her, and it resulted in Baker's work visa revocation, forcing her to cancel all her engagements and return to France. She would not be allowed in the US for another ten years.
In France, she continued her work with the NAACP(*) and started supporting the American Civil Rights Movement. More than ten years later, she returned to the US, in 1963, during the famed March on
An Audacious Volunteer
The Devoted
Mother
The Activist
Josephine with her 12 adopted children: Aiko (Korea), Luis (Colombia), Janot (Japan), Jari (Finland), Jean-Claude (Canada), Moses (French), Marianne (France), Noel (France), Brahim (Arab), Mara (Venezuela), Koffi (the Ivory-Coast), Stellina (Morocco)
Josephine in her French Air Force Uniform. Getty Images.
The Philantropist
44 | Ceres Magazine | Oct/Nov 2015
(*) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People