Josephine Baker

Freda Josephine Baker (born McDonald, 1906 to 1975), also spelled Josephine Baker, was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress, and a spy for the French Resistance, whose career was centered primarily in France. She was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French film Siren of the Tropics, and became a celebrated headline performer at the Folies Bergere in Paris; during the Second World War she aided the French Resistance and worked with British and American intelligence services, was later awarded the Resistance Medal and the Croix de Guerre and named a Knight of the Legion of Honour, refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States, and in 2021 was inducted into the Pantheon in Paris, the first Black woman to receive one of France's highest honors.