Josephine Baker to be First Black Woman in France's Pantheon

PARIS - Josephine Baker, the famed French American dancer, singer and actress who fought in the French resistance during WWII and later battled racism, will later this year become the first Black woman to enter France's Pantheon mausoleum.

Baker will be the sixth woman to join about 80 great national figures of French history in the Pantheon after Simone Veil, a former French minister who survived the Holocaust and fought for abortion rights, entered in 2018. Baker will be honored on November 30 with a memorial plaque, one of her children, Claude Bouillon-Baker, told AFP. "Pantheonisation is built over a long period of time," an aide to President Emmanuel Macron told AFP on Sunday, confirming a report in the Le Parisien newspaper.