Entertainer, civil rights activist and spy: Josephine Baker will on Tuesday evening become the first black woman to be memorialised in the Pantheon in Paris — an honour only bestowed by the French president for national heroes, reports the Financial Times.
President Emmanuel Macron, who is hoping to secure his second presidency in an election in less than five months, will lead the nationally televised ceremony, which will “retrace the different facets of [Josephine Baker’s] life as an artist, resistance fighter, activist and mother”.
She will join the likes of Victor Hugo, Marie Curie and Voltaire. In the statement announcing the decision in August, the Elysée said Baker “embodies the French spirit” and “deserves the recognition of the homeland”. Upon her family’s request, Baker’s remains will stay in Monaco where she was buried in 1975, while she will be remembered in a cenotaph with soil from the US, France and Monaco in the Pantheon.
She will be the only sixth woman to be “pantheonised”. Politicians, organisations and fans have for years campaigned to include Baker in the Pantheon, with a recent petition by essayist Laurent Kupferman reviving the debate.