Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Bakerwas an American-born French dancer, jazz and pop music singer, and actress, who came to be known in various circles as the "Black Pearl," "Bronze Venus" "Jazz Cleopatra", and even the "Creole Goddess". Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker became a citizen of France in 1937. She was fluent in both English and French...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionDancer
Date of Birth3 June 1906
CountryFrance
eye men white-man
Friends, to me for years St. Louis represented a city of fear... humiliation... misery and terror... A city where in the eyes of the white man a Negro should know his place and had better stay in it.
art art-is
Art is an elastic sort of love.
attitude blow humanity
I did take the blows [of life], but I took them with my chin up, in dignity, because I so profoundly love and respect humanity.
witty clothes naked
I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on.
people together prejudice
All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.
art blessed ideas
I have never really been a great artist. I have been a human being that has loved art, which is not the same thing. But I have loved and believed in art and the idea of universal brotherhood so much, that I have put everything I have into them, and I have been blessed.
country paris two
I have two loves: my country and Paris.
dance african-american care
A violinist had a violin, a painter his palette. All I had was myself. I was the instrument that I must care for.
beauty beautiful luck
Beautiful? It's all a question of luck. I was born with good legs. As for the rest... beautiful, no. Amusing, yes.
united-states discrimination terror
I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States, because of that terror of discrimination.
brother hate believe
The hate directed against the colored people here in St. Louis has always given me a sad feeling... How can you expect the world to believe in you and respect your preaching of democracy when you yourself treat your colored brothers as you do?
country paris white
One day I realized I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was only a country for white people. Not black. So I left. I had been suffocating in the United States... A lot of us left, not because we wanted to leave, but because we couldn't stand it anymore... I felt liberated in Paris.
prayer believe heaven
I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.
coffee together caffeine
He was my cream, and I was his coffee - And when you poured us together, it was something.