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
men
All men can live together, if they wish to.
fun men people
Oh, you young people act like old men. You have no fun.
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.
mean equality men
Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.
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.
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.
burned earth eyes mine seemed sky teeth time touch
I improvised, crazed by the music. . . . Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone.
burned earth eyes mine seemed sky teeth time touch
. . . I improvised, crazed by the music. . . . Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone.
white imagination
The white imagination is sure something when it comes to blacks.
performing dies
I love performing. I shall perform until the day I die.
christian party cities
The old Catholic parties hounded me with a Christian hatred from station to station, city to city, one stage to another.
prayer believe african-american
I believe in prayer. It's the best...
savages daily-life stage
Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in daily life.
land democracy france
I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.