from
Nadia Pantel
Hero stories begin hopelessly, so that the later deeds shine even brighter. Josephine Baker’s life fits this pattern so well that it reads like the plot of a movie. In 1906 she was born into a family so poor that Josephine began to work at the age of eight. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, deep in the American south. There are not only the segregation laws that divide people into black and white. One of the worst pogroms of the time is also taking place there. Josephine Baker was eleven years old when she witnessed people of the same color as her skin being chased and murdered through the city. 38 dead. In this hopelessness, Baker begins to dance. Because it brings money. Because she can. Because it makes her happy.