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40 Fascinating Facts About the Fabulous Josephine Baker

Khalid Elhassan July 2, 2019 24 min

Josephine Baker - Josephine Baker - Chanter L'amour

12. Her Fame Did Not Spare Her From Racism

Josephine Baker during her 1951 American tour. ThoughtCo

Baker might have succeeded in desegregating her audience in Miami, but that turned out to be a rare win during her 1951 American tour. Despite her celebrity, fame, and status, the strictures of segregation meant that she still had difficulty finding accommodations – and not just in the American south. During her US tour, Baker and her husband were turned down by 36 different hotels. Such experiences only further fueled her determination to join in the struggle for civil rights.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.