Writer James Baldwin was 24 when he arrived in Paris in 1948, with only $40 in his pocket. Entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker was just 19 when she left the United States and began dazzling Parisian crowds in 1925 draped in just a pink flamingo feather.
Despite their humble beginnings, these iconic figures escaped the permeating and oppressive racism of America and blossomed in the City of Light to become trailblazers of literary and artistic expression lasting for decades to come.
With roots stretching to the Harlem Renaissance and well beyond, Black American artists arriving in Paris during this period experienced a freedom to pursue and express themselves through literature, music, stage performance and art.
Continue reading here.