Paris is reviving the spirit of U.S.-French entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker with a new mural.
Fifty years after her death, Baker now gazes out over a diverse, bustling neighborhood of northeast Paris, thanks to urban artist FKDL and a street art festival aimed at promoting community spirit.
Baker’s son, Brian, was present at the unveiling on Saturday to see the mural depicting his mother’s face.
Baker adopted 12 children from around the world that she called her ”rainbow tribe.”
He said: “I feel moved and I feel happy because this is part of a memory of my mother.”
The mural of Baker, meant to symbolize freedom and resistance, is among several painted in recent days in the neighborhood and organized by the association Ourcq Living Colors.
Baker was the first Black woman inducted into France’s Pantheon, joining such luminaries as philosopher Voltaire, scientist Marie Curie and writer Victor Hugo.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker became a megastar in the 1930s, especially in France, where she moved in 1925 as she sought to flee racism and segregation in the United States.
In addition to her stage fame, Baker also spied on the Nazis for the French Resistance and marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington. She died in Paris in 1975.
