Josephine Baker

In July 1917, a girl named Freda Josephine McDonald stood at the end of a bridge in St. Louis. She was eleven years old. Across the river, she watched as white mobs set fire to Black neighborhoods, killing dozens and leaving thousands homeless. This was the East St. Louis race riot, an event that would define the rest of her life. She described the city as a place of fear, humiliation, and terror. The trauma of the fires she witnessed created a deep resolve to fight against discrimination. To survive, she scavenged for food in garbage cans before finding work as a dancer. By age thirteen, she had run away from home, determined to escape America and find a world where she could be free.