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Photos: Dramatic evening images frame Josephine Baker becoming the first Black woman to be inducted into France’s Pantheon

2021-11-30 00:00:00.0 洛杉矶时报-世界与民族原网页

PARIS — France is inducting U.S.-born entertainer, anti-Nazi spy and civil rights activist Josephine Baker into the Pantheon, the first Black woman to receive the nation’s highest honor.

Baker’s voice resonated Tuesday through streets of Paris’ Left Bank as recordings from her extraordinary career kicked off an elaborate ceremony at the domed Pantheon monument. Baker was joining other French luminaries honored at the site, including philosopher Voltaire, scientist Marie Curie and writer Victor Hugo.

The cenotaph of Josephine Baker (1906-1975), covered with the French flag and the cushion on which are placed her five decorations, before the American-born French dancer and singer who fought in the French Resistance and later battled racism will enter the French Pantheon during a ceremony that will celebrate a life “placed under the sign of the quest of freedom and justice”, in Paris, on November 30, 2021.

(JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP )

Military officers carried her cenotaph along a red carpet that stretched for four blocks of cobblestoned streets from the Luxembourg Garden to the Pantheon. Baker’s military medals lay atop the cenotaph, which was draped in the French tricolor flag and contained soils from her birthplace in Missouri, from France, and from her final resting place in Monaco. Her body will stay in Monaco at the request of her family.

French President Emmanuel Macron made the decision in August to honor the “exceptional figure” who “embodies the French spirit,” and he will speak at Tuesday’s ceremony. Baker is also the first American-born citizen and the first performer to be immortalized into the Pantheon.

The cenotaph of Josephine Baker, covered with the French flag enters the French Pantheon through the Great Door in Paris.

(THOMAS COEX/POOL PHOTO)

Children, members of the popular master of the Opera Comique, perform during the ceremony dedicated to Josephine Baker.

(THOMAS COEX/POOL PHOTO)

French soldiers carry a cenotaph during a ceremony dedicated to Josephine Baker, the American-born French dancer and singer who fought in the French Resistance and later battled racism, as she enters the French Pantheon in Paris on November 30, 2021.