The Champions Who Walked Among Us – The Black Pearl
Not many people know about her.
Her resistance to segregation,
Her refusal to bow down to a system that degraded people of color made her a Pariah.
She raised twelve children from different nationalities.
No one mentions the hardships of this StrongBlackWoman in the history books.
A woman who refused to bow down to a Jim Crow system.
Very few Americans talk about her.
She sang and danced,
And she spied for the French Resistance.
She became the first woman of color to star in a major motion picture production.
She defied the system.
In her own way, she challenged the erroneous lies promulgated by a nation.
Her departure from her country caused many people to breathe easier;
Some even said good riddance to this dancing woman who dared to dance at the Folies Bergères clothed in bananas.
Her banana dance was considered scandalous to the puritanical thinking bred in her country.
She helped save a nation.
Not the nation of her birth, but the nation of the people who adopted her in their hearts.
That same woman became a French Citizen and was buried in the Cimetière de Monaco.
She was the first and only American woman to receive full military honors for her funeral.
Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1906, this Black Woman, an African-American, Freda Josephine McDonald, alias Josephine Baker is known as The Black Pearl.
Until November 11th, be safe.