Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906, Josephine Baker experienced segregation and racial violence as a child. In 1925, her show talent took her from the USA to liberal Paris, then the creative epicentre of Europe. There she became a star, the highest-paid revue dancer and the first female superstar with African American roots.

Our exhibition sheds light on the foundations of Josephine Baker’s success and how she transformed the ostensible stigma of her skin colour into a strength by using her fame to set others free: As a member of the Resistance during World War II, as a mother of twelve adopted children of diverse backgrounds, as an ambassador for humanity and a committed champion of the American civil rights movement. For her lifetime achievements, Josephine Baker became the sixth and the first non-white woman to be inducted into the French Hall of Fame, the Panthéon in Paris, on 30 November 2021, and has been officially considered a national heroine ever since.