The Life of Josephine Baker and Her 2021 Induction into France’s Pantheon

Josephine Baker spent her youth in poverty before learning to dance and finding success on Broadway. In the 1920s she moved to France and soon became one of Europe's most popular and highest-paid performers. She worked for the French Resistance against Hitler during World War II, and during the 1950s and '60s devoted herself to fighting segregation and racism in the United States. During the last years of her life, she adopted 12 children, creating what she referred to as her "rainbow tribe" and her "experiment in brotherhood." She often invited people to the estate to see these children, to demonstrate that people of different races could in fact live together harmoniously. This is her story.