Joséphine Baker, singer and dancer, will be the sixth woman, and first black woman, to enter the Pantheon
next November 30.

She was an icon of the Roaring Twenties and star of Music-hall, and will be “pantheonized” alongside 81 other people from the French nation.

Freda Joséphine McDonald, of her birth name, embarked with her troupe from New York to Paris in 1925. She played in prestigious venues such as the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Folies Bergère.

At the start of World War II, Joséphine Baker became an agent of the French counter-espionage, all thanks to her associates with Parisian high society. In 1940, she enlisted in the secret services of Free France in France, then in North Africa and the Middle East.

Josephine Baker was a figure of anti-racism alongside Martin Luther King. She participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom organized by Matin Luther King. She will deliver a speech dressed in her Air Force uniform.

Joséphine Baker was also an icon of French haute couture. Indeed, she was very friends with Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain. The lack of means at the end of the Second World War did not prevent him from wearing their dresses on stage upon his return from the United States in 1949-1950.