Josephine Baker is the first Black woman to be inducted into France’s Pantheon

Josephine Baker, the American-born entertainer and civil rights activist who first achieved fame in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, was given France’s highest honor on Tuesday when she was inducted into the French Pantheon, the nation’s mausoleum of heroes.

Baker is the first performing artist, first Black woman and first American to be honored with a Pantheon induction — a move whose time, her supporters say, has come.

French President Emmanuel Macron presided over Tuesday evening’s official ceremony, broadcast live on French television and which included Baker’s family members, politicians, Monaco’s Prince Albert II and crowds of spectators. “She broke down barriers,” Macron said. “She became part of the hearts and minds of French people … Josephine Baker, you enter the Pantheon because while you were born American, deep down there was no one more French than you.”