Indignantly, Baker told people what had happened: "I can go to the king's palaces and presidential residences in other countries, but I can't buy a cup of coffee in a café in the United States." ”
| Author: Yu Lin Lang
| Editor: Ershui
| Editor: Su Su
On November 30, the Pantheon, where historical figures are buried in France, welcomed a special woman.
To the melody of "In the Name of Light," six soldiers carry Josephine Baker's coffin and solemnly walk into the Pantheon. This "daughter adopted by France" will, along with Dumas and Marie Curie, become a cultural icon of an era in France.
"She's France." French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech at the burial ceremony, "Josephine Baker, although you were born in the United States, in the depths of your soul, you are a pure Frenchman more than anyone. ”
The French praise for Baker made her "fellow countryman", many Americans, slightly embarrassed. At that time, the African-American girl was racially discriminated against, and could not even dine with white people in the United States, but became the queen of song and dance in France. This is undoubtedly the most blunt mockery of the "American Dream."
The Panthéon funeral ceremony exhibits Baker at different stages of life.
A black girl's "Paris Dream"
"On the west bank of the Mississippi River, I huddled with other small children and looked across at the black neighborhood lit up by [the mob], where the flames were raging enough to light up the night sky. The screams of black families kept coming from the other side, and I was scared to death, and at one point I wanted to escape from this nightmarish reality. ”
This is the impression that the American South left on Baker in the early 20th century.
On December 18, 1865, slavery was abolished in the United States, but the persecution of blacks in American society intensified.
41 years later, a little girl named Baker was born in the slums of St. Louis, USA, and poverty, fear and hunger filled her childhood. To support her family, she dropped out of school at the age of 12 to work as a waiter at a restaurant far from home, but still lived a life of no-to-end meals, and was wary of the ubiquitous thugs of the Ku Klux Klux Klan (the largest racist group in the United States).
Baker as a child.
Baker grew up singing and dancing, and at the age of 16 he went to Broadway in New York city with a dream of becoming a star.
Despite her talent, as a black girl, she can only play some bad clowns, deliberately using a clumsy look to win the laughter of the white audience. At this time, although Baker had an income to make ends meet, she understood that the United States was very large and had no place for herself.
In the mid-1920s, when the French were obsessed with American jazz, Baker was determined to venture into a foreign land. In 1925, she sold all her belongings, bought a ticket to France, and "fled" the United States to pursue the "Paris Dream" without looking back.
France also practiced colonialism, but there was no apartheid system in the country, and Paris was the cultural center of Europe, which was a "paradise" in the hearts of many african American artists and intellectuals.
Even after many years, Baker still remembers the excitement of his first visit to Paris, "At the Paris-Saint-Lassalle station, a French man took the initiative to push open the door for me and smiled at me gentlemanly. It was the first time I'd met a white man who had taken the initiative to smile at me. ”
Baker, a newcomer, didn't speak French, but it wasn't long before she got a chance to perform with a solid foundation in dance. At the time, the famous Champs Elysées Theatre was staging the cabaret "Black Light Dance", a work full of colonial prejudices in which Baker played a tribal dancer.
Baker added her own understanding to the dance, wearing a skirt made of 16 bananas and dancing wild and uninhibited steps, and the audience was overwhelmed by her dance style.
Baker wears a banana skirt and a charming smile.
The French historian Nijaye praised Herbé after watching Baker's performance, saying that the "tribal woman" she played was no longer a barbarian portrayed by white writers, but a charming "black Venus".
Since then, Baker has become a hit in Paris. No longer a "symbol of shame" but a sign of exotic beauty, she was known as the "Black Pearl" of the Parisian dance scene and in 1927 became one of europe's most popular and highest-paid performers.
"Fight for France"
Wildness is the essence of Baker's dance.
In order to make the show look more "exciting", she raised a cheetah as a pet and "dance partner". Under his tutelage, the fierce cheetah can make dance moves in conjunction with the performance; offstage, Baker often appears on the streets of Paris with the cheetah. "Leopard Girl" thus became a classic image of Baker.
Baker with pet cheetah.
At the same time, Baker, who had become fluent in French, began to dabble in songwriting.
In 1931, she released the song "Two Lovers", with the lyrics "I have two lovers, one is my country, one is Paris" became popular in France and became one of the classic songs representing Paris.
After the fame of Paris, Baker's circle of friends is also picasso, Hemingway and other cultural celebrities. Hemingway, who had been in contact with her many times, once exclaimed: "She is the most seductive woman I have ever seen." ”
Charming Baker is popular wherever he goes. Its fans broke the news that Baker had received more than 1,000 marriage proposals. However, this "black pearl" has a special love for a man. On November 30, 1937, After 12 years in France, Baker renounced his American citizenship and married his French boyfriend Jean León, becoming a French citizen, officiated by the mayor of Krewekoe the Great.
The little black girl who had been shivering on the banks of the Mississippi River finally had her own world on the other side of the ocean. However, just a few years after Baker's marriage, World War II broke out, and in 1940, France fell.
Baker's fame had long been spread in Europe, and the Germans wanted to invite her to give a condolence performance for the German army, but she politely refused, and quickly moved out of Paris to live in seclusion in the Manor de Mirande on the outskirts.
A mysterious person approached Baker and hoped that she would use her identity as a dancer to get close to the Germans. It turned out that the other side was a member of the "Free French Movement" led by General de Gaulle, who wanted Beck to carry out spy intelligence work and obtain intelligence from the German army. When Baker learned of this, he joined the organization without hesitation. She finally found an opportunity to repay France, "I am willing to give my life for them." ”
Since then, Baker has used the opportunity to perform across Europe to secretly gather intelligence on Germany and Italy. Sometimes she hid intelligence in sheet music, sometimes even in her underwear. According to an agent who worked with Baker, she was free to come and go at various banquets and was the ideal person for underground organizations to pass on and gather intelligence in enemy-occupied areas.
Baker's home on the outskirts became an organization stronghold where agents could store supplies and take refuge. She also risked her life to help many Jews flee Nazi-occupied Western Europe.
In 1941, Baker discovered that his identity as a spy might have been exposed, and immediately left France with his comrades for the organization's stronghold in Monaco. Soon, she became a cadre in the propaganda department and actively participated in anti-Nazi operations.
Baker worked tirelessly for the French resistance, severely affecting her health. When she returned to Paris after the end of World War II in 1945, French President Charles de Gaulle personally awarded her the Cross of War and the Medal of Resistance, the first woman born in the United States to receive the French Military Medal of Honor.
Since then, Baker has often shown himself in a military uniform, and "fighting for France" is the pride of his life.
Baker in military uniform.
Defenders of human nature
After the war, Baker soon enters a new "battlefield," this time confronting the racial discrimination that had brought her boundless fear.
She has a castle in the countryside and lives with 12 adopted children of different colors, races and religions. She gave the extended family a cute name, the Rainbow Tribe, hoping that it would be a "cosmopolitan" world without racial barriers, and that children would grow up freely, equally, and carefreely.
At the same time, Baker did not forget his fellow blacks in his home country of America. In 1951, she returned to the United States after a 26-year absence to go on an anti-discrimination tour as an anti-racism activist.
During the months-long tour, Baker refused to perform in any segregated theater and filed a lawsuit against clubs that refused to let her in. Her actions caused quite a stir in the Black Community in the United States, and people could not believe that a black girl from a slum could become an internationally renowned superstar.
In March 1963, Baker joined Martin Luther King Jr. in an anti-racial discrimination campaign in Washington. Indignantly, she told people what had happened: "I can go in and out of the king's palaces and presidential residences in other countries, but I can't buy a cup of coffee in a café in the United States." On August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech "I Have a Dream" in front of the Lincoln Memorial to advocate for racial equality, and Baker stood firmly behind him to witness this historic moment.
It wasn't until 1973, decades after being rejected by his compatriots, that Baker took to the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York. After the performance, the audience gave a standing ovation, and Baker was moved to tears.
Two years later, at the age of 69, Baker died of a cerebral hemorrhage in his sleep.
As Macron said at the funeral, Baker was a war hero, fighter, singer, dancer, a black woman who fought for black rights. But her most important identity is: a defender of humanity.
It is also the best interpretation of her life.
Macron (right) speaks at Baker's funeral.