The Banana Girl....Josephine Baker [1906-1975]

"FEW AMERICAN WOMEN of this century have captured the world’s attention like Josephine Baker. In an eventful life spanning three major wars, a revolution in style and entertainment, and the outset of the feminist movement, Josephine touched the hearts and souls of millions. A dancer beyond compare, a comedienne, singer and actress of the first rank, Josephine ultimately moved from glittering surroundings of a versatile entertainer to the grounded, practical environment of a dedicated humanitarian and social activist. The trajectory of her life provides a STUNNING EXAMPLE of all that AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN have contributed to this nation, including art, beauty and compassion. And more than twenty years after her death in Paris, Josephine ‘s zesty energy and infectious personality remained etched in the pages of modern cultural history...

With limber, well-trained body, Josephine initially stormed and routines. By the arrival of the JAZZ AGE, she would come to symbolize the intersection of brash American style and cool Parisian elegance... In one inspired public-relation stunt, Josephine thrilled European cafe society by calmly walking down the Champs-Elysées in the sleekest of flapper couture, sheathed in a glamorous fur coat, while parading a full-grown leopard on a leash. Her dancing style was one part acrobat, one part vaudeville hoofer, and Josephine enthralled audiences by displaying her beautiful body in skimpy [BANANA] costumes or in the altogether. Some critics argued that her primitive dance routines--often performed with large, dark-skinned men dressed as “African savages” demeaned black Americans. But Josephine, who hailed from a tough neighborhood in St. Louis viewed things differently. If black Americans could make light of the stereotyped images that whites held of blacks, Josephine reasoned, then perhaps blacks might thereafter begin defining their own identity and destiny...

What is perhaps most striking about Josephine is that she moved determinedly from a gawky young girl struggling for her livelihood and dignity to a supremely confident international star. And few who knew of her difficult beginnings might ever have imagined the path her life would take.

Born on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Josephine Baker was the hyperactive and inquisitive daughter of Carrie McDonald and Eddie Carson. Her maternal grandmother were Native American and Black and both had been slaves in South Carolina. By the early nineteen hundreds, Josephine’s mother had joined the exodus of Southern Blacks to the bustling, industrial Northern cities in what would eventually come to be known as the Great Migration. Her family lived in a predominantly Black ghetto of East St. Louis; Carrie, in her early twenties when Josephine was born and Eddie Carson was not married. The sprightly young parents were proficient dancers and musicians and often performed in local musical revues in the dance halls and saloons of black St. Louis... Josephine had inherited her parents’ physical grace and father’s good looks...

In 1917 disgruntled white laborers in St. Louis began protesting against blacks who were “taking their jobs”in local factories, and an especially bloody civil disturbance ensued. For several days and nights mobs of white men roamed through the black neighborhood in East St. Louis, burning homes and assaulting African-American families. By the time peace settled in, thirty-nine blacks had been killed and several hundred had lost their homes to burning and looting... Josephine developed a means of coping with such dramatic situations in her young life. Like many blacks before her, she learned to mask her unhappiness and insecurity behind a SUPERFICIAL JOLLITY and humor-her famous crossed-eye mugging emerged out of a desperate desire to hide the hurt and pain inside her. It was a skill that would make her one of the most popular comedic personality of the early twentieth century.

Popular and outgoing, Josephine soon fell in love with a handsome young man named William Wells. It would lead to the first of five marriages for Josephine, whose unpredictable temperament and free spirit often proved too intimidating for some men... As a protégé of Eubie Blake and Noble Sissie, Josephine rubbed shoulders with established performers like ETHEL WATERS and jazzman JAMES REESE EUROPE. By the time a wealthy Chicago socialite decided to mount an all-black revue for a Paris tour, Josephine was a young star in the shimmering universe of black nightclubs and theaters, including the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.

On her first trip to Paris in 1924, Josephine instantly fell in love. Only, this time, her new interest was in the cultural enticement of “gay Paree." At last, Josephine felt free and radically creative. In the cafes and salons across the city, a refreshing kind of self-expression ruled the day. For Josephine, Paris was a wide-open playground, a gorgeous city of fanciful sights and sounds and smells. For the French, the nineteen year old was an exotic. With her shiny black spit curls, wildly inventive dancing and impeccable sense of fashion, she created a sensation when she appeared bare-breasted in the all black Revue Negre. Over the next decade, Josephine would shock and engage the entertainment world with her free spirited celebration of the human body and her outspoken opinions on political issues....the French government , wishing to capitalize on Josephine’s popularity and the fact that she spoke several languages fluently, secretly enlisted her to pick up bits of intelligence from the German military men she met a social gatherings.... Additionally,Josephine threw herself into charity work, donating her time and energy to refugee shelters, helping to feed and clothes those made homeless by the war. During World War II, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary of the French Air Force and looked smashing in the crisp, tailored uniform of the regiment. It was a challenging time, and Josephine’s work would earn her one of the highest honors of the French government can confer: the Legion of Honor...

Devastated to learn that the physicians had had to perform a hysterectomy to save her life...Joesphine soon decided that she could indeed raise a family of her own and began adopting orphaned children in France and in places as far apart as Scandinavia and the United States, eventually acquiring a menage of more than twenty children.

When Josephine brought her triumphant stage act to the United States in 1951, she made headlines by breaking the “color bar” in many nightclubs were black performers played before white-only audiences... Accompanied by some members of NAACP, Josephine traveled around the United States and purposefully drew attention to unfair discrimination laws in dozens of large cities where she appeared. She held press conferences and spoke out vehemently against racist violence that was still taking place in the Deep South and against the barring of blacks from jobs in public transportation in Los Angeles and Oakland, California and other cities...Over the next two decades, she continued traveling the world, but her primary residence was a lovely estate in the French countryside.

By the mid-sixties, Josephine was revered worldwide. She had been invited to the March in Washington in 1963...Josephine became friends with Princess Grace of Monaco, and joined her to form an important of the European charity and fundraising community. In 1973, Josephine began to suffering from heart problems and traveled less...When Josephine died peacefully in France in 1975, the government buried her with a somber military funeral and full honors... In her own inimitable style, with her carefree dancing and dedicated adherence to deep humanitarian beliefs, Josephine showed unequivocably the valuable role that BLACK AMERICAN WOMEN have played in shaping this country. “
_______________
Excerpts from “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America”

Alexander, Amy “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America” New Jersey: Birch Lane Press, 1999:85