Marco Saiz

Additionally, her status as a travelling performer provided cover for her travel to the United Kingdom, where she carried notes about German military operations written in invisible ink on her sheet music to the British authorities. After the war, she returned to global stages with bolstered success. Although she remained in France, Baker was an outspoken activist in the American Civil Rights Movement, often refusing to perform in segregated venues and appearing at demonstrations in Washington, most notably alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. Though some American activists criticized her involvement in the movement, arguing that her lifetime in France had made her disconnected from the contemporary political issues in the United States, Baker argued that her social status in France and experience of relative racial equality in Europe had made her even more aware of and engaged with the fight for equal rights. Josephine Baker continued to be an outspoken advocate for civil rights in appearances around the world up until her death in 1975.

In 1951, the NAACP named her “Outstanding Woman of the Year.”

Baker was highly supportive of the civil rights movement and she spoke directly before Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

"I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad."

Following King’s death in 1968, his widow, Coretta Scott King, asked Baker if she would be open to taking the minister’s place in the Movement. She declined, citing concerns for her young children. (she had 2 children & adopted 10 more).