Juneteenth 2025
Joséphine Baker was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), and to become a world-famous entertainer. Her status allowed the perfect cover as a spy for the French Resistance during World War II for which she received the French military honor, the Croix de guerre and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. In the U.S. she refused to perform to segregated audiences and was active in the Civil Rights Movement