Josephine Baker Research Paper

African-American star Josephine Baker’s legacy began with performances in the 1920s and 30s, presenting both an exotic and erotic nature. From barely-there or no clothing to becoming a fashion icon, Baker swept the world by storm, especially in Paris. Her work continued to push boundaries racially, sexually, with gender, and—ultimately—with identity. However, her work would be nothing without her beginnings.
Born Freda Josephine McDonald, she was brought up in St. Louis, Missouri on June 3, 1906 by previous vaudeville parents. Growing up, she worked as a child domestic cleaning homes and babysitting children of white families in order to help fund the family. After becoming a waitress, young Josephine would find time to watch vaudeville shows

at the Booker T. Washington Theatre.

The Jones Family Band noticed her and asked her to dance and perform comic routines in one of their acts until the Dixie Steppers took up the entire band, touring them throughout the United States in 1919. While travelling, Josephine met railway porter William Howard Baker and, although it was a short marriage, she kept his last name, allowing her to be known as the infamous Josephine Baker. Through the years of performing, however, there was one show that caught her eye: Shuffle Along. The musical by African Americans Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake became a sensation on the Broadway stage, but Josephine was turned down when she auditioned for being “too thin” and “too dark” according to the writers. Here, she faced a certain identity that people were look for in the industry and in everyday life. After auditioning multiple times, a chorus member came down with a sickness and

Josephine was able to take her place in 1922. Through Shuffle Along, Josephine gained other opportunities, including her reason to go to Paris for the first time. In 1925, a man’s wife of the American embassy in Paris contacted Josephine and hired her for $250 a week as part of the traveling show for Shuffle Along with the La Reveu nègre. The jumpstart on her stardom and Parisian excursion-to-lifestyle had just began.
Josephine Baker’s stardom had earned her more money than any other entertainer in Europe by 1927, in which her cushy salary provided clothes, jewelry, and exotic pets.

Her home even featured life-size portraits of herself. She had built her life form the poor of St. Louis to the extravagantly rich of Europe. Despite her being chastised in America, she was the American dream, regardless of her race. After the Parisan tour of Shuffle Along, Baker premiered in La Sirène des tropiques, a scene written in French. Due to not being able to understand French at the time, she improvised her way through it and on its premiere December 30, 1927, the silent film received enthusiastic reviews, launching her film career. Through this sudden fame, her identity was altered swiftly and dramatically. The reinventions came with what she thought needed to be addressed in the world, as a sort of political message through performances. In Baker’s earlier performances, she used the idea of creating a primitive, non-Western character that was exotic to the people of Paris. The funny thing is that she was continuing to hold this tradition of entertaining white audiences, but touching upon social concerns at the same time. She was addressing the idea that people from less developed countries were these creatures in white society and the white audience—clearly—demanded to be entertained by

it.
Though Baker had continued to alter her identity and push barriers, in 1936 when she returned to the U.S. to perform in the Ziegfeld Follies, she was met with intense racism from the audience and media. That, however, did not stop her battle for racial equality.
Josephine Baker defied the roles of social norms in order to defy racisms and sexism in the world. Although her talents were not appreciated in the United States at the time of her peak, her legacy forever lives on in U.S. culture. Today we see her dance moves in popular culture performances and her fashion legacies in magazines. She brought a freedom to women’s sexuality and challenged the gender roles of how women are supposed to dress day-to-day. She, too, broke the barriers that she could not get past at the time, going to another country to perform. She brought equality to a country where she had none.