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I cannot see that I did anything extraordinary to merit this honor. Everything was just as it had to be."

— Josephine Baker

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More quotes by Josephine Baker

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.

Josephine (1977)

I have stage contracts for the next 18 months, and I shall go on with them whatever he says.

Friends, to me for years St. Louis represented a city of fear... humiliation... misery and terror... A city where in the eyes of the white man a Negro should know his place and had better stay in it.

First, I want to do what I can to help win the war and thus perform whatever duty I can for my native land. Second, I want to help those of my own race. I am doing all I can to help win the war effort and to make people generally more appreciative and kinder to my race.

France made me what I am. I will be grateful forever. The people of Paris have given me everything. They have given me their hearts, and I have given them mine. I am ready, captain, to give them my life. You can use me as you wish.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Josephine Baker (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.