ted . . . Les Milandes with dogs, cats, monkeys, parakeets, ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys and pheasants.”# Baker expected the proceeds of tourism to help with the expenses of running the massive estate. The rest of the expenses would be paid through her various performances. Baker returned to the United States in 1948, but, just as in 1936, was not well received. This time, however, she decided to use her influence, limited as it was in America, to take a stand against racism. Ms. Baker insisted on a nondiscrimation clause in her contracts, and integrated audiences at all her performances. “The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) declared May 20, 1951, Josephine Baker Day in honor of her efforts to fight racism.”# An example of Ms. Baker’s fight against racism occurred in a segregated Miami nightclub, the Copa City, in 1951. No entertainer had ever played to a non-segregated audience in Miami, and negotiations were taxing. At one point, she turned down $10,000 a week because they refused to guarantee integrated audiences. Ms. Baker did not give up, and finally opened at Copa City to its first integrated audience. The Philadelphia Inquirer said of Josephine Baker: “Her appearances have been marked by perhaps the most outspoken opposition to racial discrimination and segregation ever shown by a Negro artist, except [Paul] Robeson.”#In 1954, Baker decided to return to France and start a family. It was her intense desire to prove that people of different races could live in harmony. She adopted twelve children - ten boys and two girls - all of various ethnic backgrounds. She called her group her “Rainbow Tribe.” Her adopted children, in order from oldest to youngest, were “Akio (Korean), Louis (Columbian), Jarri (Finnish), Jean Claude (French), Jannot (Japanese), Moses (Israeli), Brahim (Arab), Marianne (French), Mara (Venezuelan Indian), C...
