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
white imagination
The white imagination is sure something when it comes to blacks.
believe white people
I believe if the white and colored people could get together and be let alone, they would understand each other and consequently love each other.
inspiration white heaven
Let us stop saying 'white Americans' and 'colored Americans,' let us try once and for all saying... Americans. Let human beings be equal on Earth as in Heaven.
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.
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.
men
All men can live together, if they wish to.
believe brothers colored expect preaching respect treat
Americans, the eyes of the world are upon you. 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?
beast home horrible ran soul states terror united
I ran away from home. I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States of America, because of that terror of discrimination, that horrible beast which paralyzes one's very soul and body.
followed importance learning names time victims whose
I was learning the importance of names -- having them, making them -- but at the same time I sensed the dangers. Recognition was followed by oblivion, a yawning maw whose victims disappeared without a trace.
fun men people
Oh, you young people act like old men. You have no fun.
strong tired intelligent
I think they must mix blood, otherwise the human race is bound to degenerate. Mixing blood is marvelous. It makes strong and intelligent men. It takes away tired spirits.
country america devil
I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too.
performing dies
I love performing. I shall perform until the day I die.
america funeral promise
What am I most ashamed of in my life? Not keeping my promise to my sister and being too scared of America to attend her funeral.