Thread by @Variety

Josephine Baker, the trailblazing American-born entertainer and civil rights activist, is the first Black woman to be laid to rest at France’s Pantheon. bit.ly/3IbHAa2

The Parisian monument is dedicated to iconic figures that have left a decisive imprint on French history, including the writers Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo and Emile Zola, resistance hero Jean Moulin and politician Simone Weil. bit.ly/3IbHAa2

Baker is one of only six women to have received this rare honor, along with Weil, scientist Marie Curie, chemist Marcellin Berthelot and resistance figures Germaine Tillion and Geneviève de Gaulle-Athonioz. bit.ly/3IbHAa2

Baker’s remains will stay in Monaco, where she was buried, but her presence at the Pantheon is commemorated with a plaque on a cenotaph. bit.ly/3IbHAa2

President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Baker’s legacy, calling her “a war hero, fighter, dancer, singer, Black defending Blacks — but beyond that a woman who defended human beings, American and French.” bit.ly/3IbHAa2

Born in Missouri, Baker became a global star after moving to Paris to escape racial segregation. At the time, Paris was viewed as Europe’s capital for the arts and culture. She helped popularize jazz in the country and became a music-hall sensation. bit.ly/3IbHAa2

During WWII, Baker became a secret agent for the French Resistance, as well as a lieutenant in the French air force’s female auxiliary corps, for which she received a Resistance Medal. bit.ly/3IbHAa2

Baker died at the age of 68 in 1975. Read more on the Parisian monument here. bit.ly/3IbHAa2