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HONORING MADAME JOSEPHINE BAKER
______
HON. BARBARA LEE
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today on a very historic occasion for the international community as we celebrate the life of American-born singer, dancer, World War II hero and civil rights icon Josephine Baker.
On November 30th, Madame Baker will be reinterred in a ceremony at the Pantheon monument in Paris, France. This will make her the first American, the first Black woman, and the first entertainer to receive the country's highest honor. Madame Baker's induction into the Paris Pantheon will put her among the company of the highest French achievers in Arts, Letters, and Science.
Though born an American citizen, Madame Baker lived most of her life in France and became a French citizen in the 1930s. Growing up homeless and in poverty, she became an internationally recognized entertainer and actress. However, her contributions did not stop in the arts. She was also a key member of the French Resistance movement during World War II, acting as a spy, as she gathered intelligence and smuggled messages for resistance forces.
After the war, Madame Baker was awarded with one of France's top military honors, the Croix de Guerre, for her role in resisting occupation under the Nazis.
Even as France became her home, Madame Baker never turned her back on the United States and the social injustice happening here. She used her celebrity to push against Jim Crow segregation and leveraged her platform to support the Civil Rights Movement happening at the time. On numerous occasions, she returned to the United States to perform. However, she refused to play in segregated establishments and championed racial equality--including right here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the 1950's Madame Baker appeared with Paul Robeson supporting better pay for Oakland dock workers and longshoreman, she took part in Berkeley protests demanding Black people be hired as transit workers on the Key Line, and she warned that she would not perform at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre unless Black patrons could buy tickets to her concerts.
For her civil rights activities in challenging racial segregation, Madame Baker was labeled ``a communist troublemaker'' and put on the FBI watchlist. She lost her U.S. citizenship rights for over a decade.
It was not until the intervention of then U.S. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, that she was finally allowed to return to the U.S. in 1963 to speak at the March on Washington.
Wearing her French Resistance military uniform, Madame Baker was one of the few women speakers to address the crowd that day as a quarter million people gathered before the Lincoln monument.
``You know I have always taken the rocky path,'' she told the crowd.
``I never took the easy one, but as I get older, and as I knew I had the power and the strength, I took that rocky path and I tried to smooth it out a little. I wanted to make it easier for you. I want you to have a chance at what I had.''
This is the legacy of Madame Josephine Baker that we celebrate and uplift on the global stage. From the Pantheon in Paris to the halls of the U.S. Congress, we honor her contributions, courage, and conviction to make this world a better place for us all.
On behalf of the 13th Congressional District of California, I commend Madame Josephine Baker for her service and dedication.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 206
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