Josephine Baker – born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis,
Missouri – was a singer, dancer, actress, civil rights activist and a French
Resistance agent. She was a pioneer of music hall and an icon of the Roaring
Twenties. Born into a poor family, she left school to work at the age of 13. A
street dancer, she joined the Dixie Steppers dance troupe and went to New York
to perform on Broadway in the musical Shuffle Along. In 1925, she was offered a
starring role in the Revue nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Josephine Baker quickly conquered the ...