a breath of freedom at the Pantheon

“Joséphine Baker’s cenotaph, covered with a tricolor flag, will go up rue Soufflot towards the Pantheon, carried by six airmen of the Air Force, of which she was a member”, indicates the journalist Valérie Astruc, present on the scene. An aviator “will carry on a cushion his five medals, in particular that of the resistance and the Legion of honor”.

The French army choir will then perform the songs of Joséphine Baker. “It is then that the Pantheon will take on the air of a theater stage, since the facade will be adorned with a red curtain which will open on Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston”, continues the journalist. Five months before the presidential election, “Some see it as a political message against the far right: Josephine Baker, rejected by segregationist America, but honored by France, which was able to welcome her”, concludes Valérie Astruc.