Joséphine Baker at the Pantheon
Audio 48:30
Joséphine Baker in the uniform of a second lieutenant engaged alongside General de Gaulle and Free France.
© Historical Department of Defense - Ministry of the Armed Forces
By: Valérie Nivelon
1 min
To great women, the grateful homeland!
The artist Joséphine Baker, a prominent figure in the Resistance and the anti-racist struggle, is the first black woman to enter the Pantheon where, for more than a century, France has honored the memory of the great figures of our history.
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“
Is there a stage in your career that is particularly important to you?
"
, Asks a journalist to Josephine Baker, on the occasion of her new show in 1974."
Yes, it's war, we were doing something useful and I cannot forget what we did
".
When she approached her involvement in the French resistance, the press invariably referred her to its pens, but Joséphine Baker, the first international black star, did not consider herself as a singer in the service of the Armies, but as a fighter who sings!
For her entry into the Pantheon, we searched the archives where Josephine Baker testifies to her resistance to Nazism and her fight against racism alongside ML King, in the United States.
Rare documents.
A program produced by Sophie Janin with Dauphine Maureau, to the sound of Joséphine Baker's voice (RFI and INA archives). With the participation of Géraud Létang, historian, researcher in the historical service of Defense; Marion Soutet, heritage curator and responsible for contemporary funds at the SHD and François Drémeaux, teacher-researcher in colonial history at the University of Angers.
To read:
The article by François Drémeaux published by the site The Conversation as well as that of
Yvan Gastaut.
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