Josephine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar.

Josephine Baker was born in illegitimate poor black child. Throughout her life she became the most famous woman in the world.

She always had a sense of pride in representing her people. She became a dancer in the black vaudeville in 1921, in the great city of New York. Some of the shows that she participated in were Dixie stepper and shuffle along. In this time, black performers blackened their faces so they could pass as whites performing as blacks. Performing in the chorus line, she was always at the end of line making faces and being out of step. This got her noticed she became known as that girl.

She joined an all-black revue chorus line in 1925 and went to Europe to find freedom. Arriving in France she turned Paris’s head in 1925. She was treated as a normal person not as a black African-American like she wasn't in America. The Parisians treated her as an exotic wildflower. She danced onstage naked just a flamingo feather, she was considered beautiful sexy and funny. She became a symbol of sexual liberation took many liberties with sex both male and female, and had quite exotic lifestyle. She even had a baby cheetah that she would walk around on the leash. One of her most exotic dances was the banana girl dance. She danced on stage with nothing but a skirt of bananas.

She became a role model to many French women at the time and starred in films and opened her own nightclub. She was the first black actor in a major motion picture. She came back to the United States to perform. Nothing really had changed for her, she was spent on the she walked into a hotel. In an interview she said she was not angry with the woman that sat on her, and that she was only brought up that way. Heartbroken, she returned to France on November of 1937 denounced her citizenship and became a French citizen.

During the war should became a counter intelligence operative. She spied on the Germans for the French. She used her music sheets to smuggle German physicians to the French. When her position as a spy became dangerous French military faked her death. For the rest of the war she did shows for the American and British troops.

After the war she became quite famous in Europe and in America. She was offered a lot of money to play in a nightclub which she only agreed to if the audience was not segregated. Everything seemed to be going great until one night at a restaurant she waited for an hour and didn't get served. She wanted to sue the restaurant and verbally attacked a newspaper columnist that was at the restaurant. This newspaper columnist accused her of being a communist and she lost all her support for further shows.

She returned to France and adopted 12 orphans from all around the world. She called them her rainbow tribe. It became very expensive and taxing on her relationship with her husband who finally decided to leave her. She worked very hard to keep her home and her 12 children but eventually lost the Château. In 1963 in March she came back to Washington for the March on Washington and was honored by the people.

In April 1975 she returned to Paris 50 years after the first time she'd arrived in France. On April 8, 1975 at the age of 68 she did her final show. It was considered one of the best shows should ever put on and she said she felt as if she was 19 again. The following evening she suffered a final stroke and never regained consciousness. The Armed Forces gave her a full military funeral with a 21 gun salute for her service in the military during the war.

Her biggest contribution to the theater was her beautiful black body was enjoyed by both black and white audiences around the world.