American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent and civil rights activist Josephine Baker will make history and receive one of the highest honors France can offer, 46 years after her death.
The New York Times’ Constant Méheut has reported that Baker will become the first Black woman to be entombed in the Panthéon in Paris — also known as the country’s “tomb of heroes.” The burial is said to be a “symbolic” and highly important move for France, which, like the United States, is torn with ongoing racial tensions.
According to Méheut, “the honor will make Baker — who became a French citizen in 1937 and died in Paris in 1975 — the first Black woman and one of the few foreign-born figures to be interred there.”
