Pantheon

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American Legend Is First Black Woman Given French Honor

Josephine Baker makes history nearly 50 years after her death

(Newser) - France is inducting Josephine Baker—Missouri-born cabaret dancer, French World War II spy and civil rights activist—into its Pantheon, the first Black woman honored in the final resting place of France’s most revered luminaries. On Tuesday, a coffin carrying soils from the US, France and Monaco—places where...

Josephine Baker to Be Reinterred at the Pantheon

She's the first Black woman to get the honor

(Newser) - The remains of American-born singer and dancer Josephine Baker will be reinterred at the Pantheon monument in Paris , making the entertainer who is a World War II hero in France the first Black woman to get the country’s highest honor, the AP reports. Le Parisien newspaper reported Sunday that...

France Seeks a Rarity: A Woman for Its Pantheon

Only 2 of 73 buried there are female

(Newser) - France's Pantheon, completed in 1790, seeks to honor the country's "great men"—but the powers that be agree that the next great man probably should be a woman. Since the Pantheon's creation, only 73 people have been interred there. Only two of those are women,...

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