Interment in Paris ’s Panthéon is one of the greatest posthumous honors a French citizen could desire to achieve , as it ’s allow for the country ’s most celebrated guiding light . But to say that the burial list has a wash and sexuality imbalance is a snatch of an understatement . The overwhelming majority of the Panthéon ’s 70 - odd graves and inscription are for white men , fromVoltaireand Jean - Jacques Rousseau toVictor Hugoand Émile Zola .
In fact , only five woman have beenburiedthere : Marie Curie ; French Resistance battler Geneviève de Gaulle - Anthonioz ; ethnologist Germaine Tillion ( who also helped the French Resistance ) ; feminist Simone Veil ; and Sophie Berthelot , who technically got her spot because her husband , chemist Marcellin Berthelot , request she be inter beside him . Now , asSmithsonianreports , Josephine Bakerwill become the sixth fair sex and the first sinister woman to be buried in the Panthéon .
Born in Missouri in 1906 , the Jazz Age performing artist immigrated to France in 1925 and quick became an international sense experience . Her trailblazing career as a ignominious woman inentertainmentcould alone have make her a Panthéon plot of land , but Baker did n’t stop at telling , saltation , and acting . She leverage her celebrity to become one of France ’s most intrepidspiesduringWorld War II , smuggling content write ininvisible inkon her piece of paper music and concealing other intel in her baggage or even pinned to her unmentionable . She was awarded the Croix de Guerre , the Medal of the Resistance , and a military social rank : lieutenant of the Free French Air Force .
Baker , an official French citizen since 1937 , was also a lifelongcivil rightsactivist and a fighter of underprivileged fry . During the 1950s , she adopt 12 orphan from all over the world ; and in 1963 , she verbalize alongsideMartin Luther King Jr.during the March on Washington .
Baker ’s remains have been inhume in Monaco since her last in 1975 , but a recent Change.orgpetitionlaunched by writer Laurent Kupferman called for her reinterment in the Panthéon . According toThe New York Times , French president Emmanuel Macron make notice once the petition had amassed almost 40,000 theme song , and a representative sustain last weekend that Baker would indeed be transferred to Paris ’s most illustrious inhumation website on November 30 , 2021 .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
