In honor of Black History Month, and the start of the Roaring ‘20s, we should remember Josephine Baker who will always be one of the most iconic black cultural icons of the Jazz Age. Born in 1906 to two former slaves (though it’s rumored her father was actually a white German man) in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker grew up poor and underfed. She began working as a nanny for a white family at age 8, and by 12 years old, had dropped out of school.
In order to make more money on the side, Baker began dancing on the street at age 15, and eventually caught the eye of an African American dance troupe which led her to run away from home. She then got married to Willie Baker, whom she divorced quickly, but used his name professionally for the rest of her life.
Baker later moved to New York City, just in time for the Harlem Renaissance, and began dancing at Vaudeville shows (a popular theatre genre at the time). She refused to perform for segregated audiences, which was the early stage of her life-long commitment to the Civil Rights Movement. In New York City, she found her career taking off due to her success in the first Black Broadway musical “Shuffle Along,” and she relocated to Paris to further it. She became well-known for her distinctive dance style, the flapper-costumes she wore, her singing, and even some minor acting in French cinema. In Europe, she brought popular Black dance styles to the stage.
A new attitude forming around black people in Europe, and specifically Paris, was in large part due to Baker. The then-unique thinking was letting Black people exist as they were without forcing them to assimilate completely to white society. In light of this, Baker starred in two movies centered around feeling like a “racial outsider,” which was a never-before-done concept in cinema. Although both films weren’t immediate hits, they still heightened Baker’s success, and brought more Black issues to the forefront of white society than ever before.
In her later years, after learning she could not have children of her own, Baker decided to adopt children- 12, to be exact- from countries across the world. Her reasoning for this was to prove that racial barriers and divides did not exist. She called her children the “Rainbow Tribe,” and vowed to teach them each about their respective culture. She was also invited to speak at the Great March at Washington in the light of the Civil Rights Movement, which she accepted. Baker was even asked by Coretta Scott-King to take over the movement after Martin Luther King’s assassination, but she ultimately declined due to her commitment to her children.
Josephine Baker is mostly recognized for her work as a popular flapper, yet she was much more than that in her later years. She should also be known as one of the most important black cultural icons of the 20th century- she paved the way for many black performers in the 1920’s and beyond, and it’s time she’s seen as so.