Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri to a single black woman (her father was probably a white man of German ancestry for whom her mother had worked); Josephine had great struggles as a child. At the age of eight she was sent to work for an abusive woman who burned her hand when the young girl put too much soap in the laundry. She ran away to the slums of St. Louis at the age of 12 and would eventually make her way to New York during the Harlem Renaissance of the early 1920s. It was at this point that she found her talent as a performer and would try her luck in Paris. It was there in Paris that Josephine Baker would find instant success as an erotic dancer and was nicknamed the “Bronze Venus†and the “Black Pearl.†Even the American “ex-pat†living in France Ernest Hemingway described her as “… the most sensational woman anyone ever saw.†The French loved Josephine and she loved them right back. During WWII, Josephine aided the French Resistance by carrying secret messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music across France (she would become the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor Croix de guerre for her war efforts) . She was one brave lady. Josephine Baker was truly a pioneer among African-Americans and an inspiration to all.
