Joséphine Baker entered the Pantheon on Tuesday.

She became the first black woman to join the great French figures, in tribute to her “incredible” life as a music hall artist, resistance and anti-racist activist.

Her cenotaph - a coffin not containing the remains, which remained in the family vault -, carried by soldiers from the Air Force of which she was a second lieutenant, entered the dome of the Pantheon around 6.30 p.m.

"My France is Josephine", launched Emmanuel Macron, greeting a committed woman who wanted "to prove to the world that skin colors, origins, religions could not only coexist but live in harmony".

Back, in pictures, on this historic ceremony.


Director:

Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • Joséphine Baker's coffin first went up rue Soufflot on a huge red carpet in front of 8,000 spectators, according to the Élysée.

  • His most famous song

    I have two loves, my country and Paris

    was broadcast on the way.

  • She is only the sixth woman - out of 80 famous figures - to enter the Pantheon, the last being Simone Veil in 2018.

  • A video montage illustrating the life of the singer, French since 1937, was projected on the facade of the Pantheon.

  • The atmosphere of Parisian scenes during the Roaring Twenties.

  • His activity in the Resistance during World War II.

  • And his speech for black civil rights alongside Martin Luther King.

  • Her cenotaph - a coffin not containing the remains, which remained in the family vault -, carried by soldiers from the Air Force of which she was a second lieutenant, entered the dome of the Pantheon around 6.30 p.m.

  • The cenotaph then entered under the nave, forty-six years after the artist's death in 1975, to the sound of a work by Pascal Dusapin.

  • About a thousand guests had come to pay homage to him, as well as nine of his twelve children, moved and happy by this recognition.

  • "My France is Josephine", launched Emmanuel Macron, greeting a committed woman who wanted "to prove to the world that skin colors, origins, religions could not only coexist but live in harmony".

  • But the Head of State did not forget to greet the first singer and dancer to enter this solemn monument.

    “You enter this Pantheon where a wind of fantasy and daring rushes with you.

    For the first time here, a certain idea of ​​freedom and celebration, ”said Emmanuel Macron.

  • "We are living an exceptional moment because she was an exceptional woman", reacted to the Pantheon Akio Bouillon Baker (on the left), one of Joséphine's sons: "Mum would have been very happy.

    The pleasure was to see this audience outside, which was his audience.

    Mom represents all the forgotten in history.

    Mom's entry is that of all those working for a better world.

    "

  • Ceremony

  • Slideshow

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Pantheon

  • Politics