Josephine Baker: One Sexy Spy

Famed African-American exotic dancer and entertainer Josephine Baker was a spy for the French resistance during World War II. Baker who grew up in poverty in St.Louis, Missouri gained famed for her dancing, acting, and singer during the Harlem Renaissance and Roaring Twenties. Her criticism of American segregation and discrimination made her one of the first major Black entertainers to take an aggressive stance against Jim Crow laws. Not afraid of being considered too radical or losing performance opportunities she refused to perform before segregated audiences.

In 1921 Baker played in "Shuffle Along," Broadway's first Black musical. Although she was an outstanding actor she became famous for her sexual and exotic dance called the "Black Venus." The original diva had men fainting and women envious with her semi-nude dance that featured a peek-a-boo grass skirt that left little for the imagination.

During the mid 1920s she left the United States for Europe where she became an instant star. Touring England, France, Spain, and Germany Europeans could not get enough of her. In fact, one of Baker's rejected European lovers committed suicide at her feet to show his love for the ebony dark goddess. In the 1930s she took a step forward to become involve in the war effort.

Hating racism and bigotry she joined the French Resistance against Germany. She traveled in and out of the Nazi state carrying messages that were written in invisible ink on sheet music. German officers, contrary to the Nazi Aryan beauty standard, where so captured by her Black beauty and blinded by Baker's stardom they never suspected that she was a spy.

After the War she traveled and performed in North West Africa and toured various ares in the Mediterranean. In her travels she adopted children that ultimately totalled eleven kids. Later during this period she returned to the United States to perform. But, America was not ready for a bold, and sexy Black lady who was an outspoken critic on Uncle Sam's race policies. Nonetheless, she remained in the United States and joined the Civil Rights Movement in 1948. Having a strange love-hate affair with the United States she left for Europe once more.

Her later years was extremely hard. She had health problems, two heart attacks, and fell into poverty. Many times she had to wear disguises as she begged in the streets to support her family. In the late 1960s and early 1970s she made a brief comeback in the theater. At this time though, many in America did not value her greatness nor legacy. Black militants ridiculed her because she did not endorse the Black Power Movement. In 1975 in April the bronze diva made her transition to the next life. Buried in Paris, France over twenty thousand fans said goodbye to one of the greatest entertainers and heroes of the twentieth century.