Ms. Baker and the Students

This was around the time Ms. Baker gave a talk at Fisk University, a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, on "France, North Africa And The Equality Of The Races In France".

Here Josephine Baker chats with students from Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee, where she gave a speech on race and equality. Josephine Baker was seen as a threat by the United States. The FBI kept a file on her, and the State Department collected data on her activities, using the information to dissuade other countries from allowing her to perform. She was seen as a threat because she used her international prominence to call attention to the discriminatory racial practices of the United States. The United States government could not restrict her travel by withdrawing her passport because she carried the passport of her adopted nation, France.

Josephine Baker, Racial Protest, and the Cold War by Mary L. Dudziak; Josephine: The Hungry Heart by Jean-Claude Baker and Chris Chase.