Josephine Baker in the 1940s.
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A BEAUTIFUL, GLAMOROUS woman at the Italian embassy party was making quite a stir. No one who noticed Josephine Baker laughing, talking, and flirting with the party guests would have suspected for a moment that she was there on a mission as an Allied spy. After a while, she walked casually toward the ladies’ room. She had overheard something that might prove to be valuable information. When she was safely in the ladies’ room, she quickly wrote down what she had heard and pinned the note to her underwear. Then she went back to the party to once again play the part of a vivacious entertainer. Who would dare even think of searching for evidence of espionage in the undergarments of Josephine Baker, the famous African American turned Frenchwoman who had taken Paris by storm by dancing skillfully in scanty outfits? Apparently no one.
Josephine Baker was born in St. Louis on June 3, 1906, into extreme poverty. She had very few bright spots in her bleak childhood, but one of them was dancing. She loved to watch the dancers at the Booker T. Washington Theater and tried to mimic all the new dance steps she saw performed there. When she was 10 years old, she won a dance competition put on by a traveling salesman. The prize, and the audience’s reaction to her dancing, gave her a purpose: she was going to be a dancer.
In 1917, Josephine lived through an experience that was to shape the rest of her life. Increasing racial tensions in East St. Louis, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, caused by the rising black population after World War I, whites’ anxiety over losing jobs, irresponsible newspaper stories, and, above all, racism, combined to create violent and destructive race riots. Black homes were destroyed, and white mobs attacked and killed black people while the police watched and did nothing. Some blacks tried to fight back, but most of them—about 1,500 in total—fled to St. Louis. Josephine stood by the foot of the bridge, watching them come. She would never forget their panicked and terrified expressions as they rushed desperately across the bridge away from the violent racism that had chased them out.
Josephine eventually found steady work as a dancer. Her dancing was unusual and interesting, an energetic mixture of many different styles that she combined to make her own. She attracted the interest of some touring show producers who were able to offer her more money. She was then noticed by producers for a show that was leaving for Paris. They needed a comedienne and a dancer, and Josephine excelled at both. She was at first a little hesitant about going across an ocean to a strange land, but many things made her want to take the risk. One reason was the racism she experienced in the United States. Another was that she was always ready for an adventure.
When she arrived in Paris, she was shocked to find that the producers wanted her to dance in skimpy outfits, some of which didn’t even cover her breasts. She had set her heart on being clothed in long, elegant gowns, not in costumes that only partially covered her body.
But she was eventually convinced. Things were quite different in Paris than they were in the United States. In 1920s Paris, Josephine’s dancing and skimpy outfits weren’t considered immoral but, rather, artistic and representative of the new Jazz Age. The 1920s were referred to by that name partly because jazz music, which had been created by African Americans, was very popular at the time. Parisians were also interested in the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement in New York City that was admired worldwide and that embraced black artists, writers, and music. Because Josephine seemed to embody everything that was beautiful about African Americans, she was an absolute fascination to Parisians. She was the most photographed woman of 1926 and became a symbol of the decade. She inspired writers such as Ernest Hemingway and artists such as Pablo Picasso. She starred in a film called Zou-Zou, making her the first black woman to have a leading role in a film. She also developed her singing voice to the extent that she was able to successfully star in an Offenbach operetta called La Creole. Because she was highly paid for her dancing and singing, she became extremely wealthy; some believed her to be the richest black woman in the world at the time.
But not everyone approved of Josephine’s dancing—or her race. When she went on a European tour in 1928, she performed for many enthusiastic audiences in 25 different countries, and she began to realize how racist some European countries were becoming. In countries that were beginning to embrace Nazi ideology, such as Austria and Germany, many of Josephine’s audiences were openly hostile, sometimes hurling insults and ammonia bombs onto the stage when she tried to perform. This was partly because of her skimpy dancing outfits but largely because of her race. Nazirun newspapers condemned Josephine not only for her costumes and wild dancing but also for daring to appear onstage with white “Aryan” performers.
After her European tour, Josephine always equated Nazism with racism. One decade later, on November 9, 1938, when the Nazis destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues all over Germany on the day that would be forever remembered as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), Josephine decided that she must do something to fight the Nazis. She joined an organization called the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
She was also noticed by the Deuxième Bureau, an organization of French military intelligence that was part of General de Gaulle’s Free French Forces. The bureau was looking for undercover agents who could afford to work without pay, especially those who could travel from place to place easily, obtaining visas without excessive questioning or arousing suspicions. Josephine was perfect for the job since, as an entertainer, she always had a reason for traveling.
Jacques Abtey, head of the bureau’s military intelligence in Paris, thought that it was a foolish idea to entrust Josephine Baker with something as serious as espionage. Not only was she a female entertainer, but she also seemed to change her relationships with men almost as frequently as she changed her dancing outfits; she didn’t seem trustworthy to him. But when Abtey interviewed her she told him, “France has made me what I am…. They have given me everything, especially their hearts. Now, I will give them mine. Captain, I am ready to give my life for France. You can make use of me as you will.”
Abtey was quickly convinced of her patriotism as well as her ability to be an excellent agent. He gave her the title of honorable correspondent, and after she had received several weeks of training in weapons, languages, self-defense, and memory tests, he sent her on her first mission.
Josephine was already a welcome guest at parties given at the Italian embassy. The war hadn’t officially started yet, but everyone knew it was coming, and the Allies needed information regarding the possibility of Italy entering the war. Josephine went to several parties at the embassy. No one suspected that the sparkling Josephine Baker was actually listening intently for political information, which she would then relay to Abtey.
Before the Germans invaded Paris, Joseph Goebbels had denounced Josephine as a decadent artist. After the invasion, the Germans passed a law that expressly forbade the performance of black or Jewish entertainers. However, none of this mattered to Josephine. As soon as the Germans set foot in France, she vowed that she would never perform in her beloved adopted country as long as even one Nazi remained.
She left Paris for her chateau, a large rural home in southern France that she had named Les Milandes. The chateau was far from the northern, occupied section of France, which made it useful to the Resistance. It was a stop-off for Resistance workers, a safe house for refugees needing a place to hide, and was also used for storing weapons. One day, five German officers arrived at Les Milandes, demanding to search the house. One of them said, “We are informed, madame, that you are hiding weapons in your chateau. What do you have to say to that?”
Josephine replied, “I think that monsieur l’officier cannot be serious. It is true that I had Red Indian grandparents, but they hung up their tomahawks quite a while ago now, and the only dance I’ve never taken part in is the war dance.” The Germans believed her story and left.
However, it was obvious that Les Milandes was being watched and that Josephine needed to leave. Her superiors at the Deuxième Bureau decided that she and Abtey should travel together to gather information and make contact with the Resistance in places such as Spain, Portugal, and North Africa. Josephine would give performances, and Abtey would pose as her secretary under a false name. Josephine attended many parties, always keeping her ears open, and Abtey took note of German military activity. They used invisible ink to record everything in the margins of Josephine’s sheet music.
In June 1941, while in North Africa, Josephine became dangerously sick with a consecutive series of illnesses and was forced to stay in a clinic in Casablanca until December 1942. When she finally felt strong enough to perform again, she began to entertain the Allied troops—which now included soldiers from the United States—who were stationed in North Africa, often traveling to two or three locations per day without pay and in extremely difficult and dangerous conditions. Sandstorms were frequent, water was scarce, wild animals were plentiful, and German gunfire was constant; Josephine had to duck airplane bullets during a show more than once.
Because Josephine was part of the Resistance, she knew more than most other wartime entertainers about immediate war plans. “Often I knew the men would be sent into battle before they knew,” she said later of her experiences entertaining Allied troops in North Africa. “To see them in front of me so full of life and enthusiasm, and knowing that many of them wouldn’t come back alive, was the hardest part of the tour.”
It was in North Africa that Josephine was reminded of the racism that was still rampant in the United States. Before her shows began, she noticed that the white soldiers were always seated in the front and the black soldiers in the back. She refused to perform until the seating was desegregated. It usually was.
For her efforts during the war, Josephine became the first American-born woman to receive the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War). She also received the Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor) and the Rosette of the Resistance, and was made a member of the Forces Françaises Libres. She was wearing the FFL uniform when she spoke at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963, just before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his stirring “I Have a Dream” speech.
Josephine Baker died in 1975, at the age of 68, four days after having performed in a highly acclaimed musical revue in Paris that celebrated her 50 years in entertainment. At her funeral, she received full military honors from the French government.
LEARN MORE Haney, Lynn, Naked at the Feast: The Biography of Josephine Baker (Robson Books: London, 1995).
Wood, Ean. The Josephine Baker Story (Sanctuary Press: United Kingdom, 2000).