This Black History Month, alumna Sue O’Brien (1977) nominates Josephine Baker.
Sue says: “On a visit to her former home (The Chateau de Milandes in the Dordogne) I learned a lot more than I had previously known about Josephine Baker. What a life. What a character.
From an unpromising beginning in St Louis, Missouri, spending part of her childhood on the streets she became a sensational entertainer, film star, wartime resistance hero, a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, a prominent civil rights activist and nurturer of 12 children, adopted deliberately from all over the globe to demonstrate that a “rainbow tribe” could live in harmony.”
Read more about Josephine here.