WHEN THEIR SOLDIERS' JAZZ ASTOUNDED PARISIANS
They were among the first American troops to be sent home, for becoming "too friendly" with the French.
-- Joanne Burke, maker of documentary films on Black topics, including African-American soldiers in Paris
France-Amérique / zoom
I thought their aura began with a jazzed-up Marseillaise,
played during the victory march on the Champs-Elysées
after World War I.
When I found no reference to it on the web, I asked Joanne Burke, mentioned above. "There is no footage," she said. "I spent years looking through footage from many sources, including the French military archives (not easy). Along with not discovering this footage, reading revealed that African American soldiers were some of the first to get shipped back to America. The US Army was aware that they were getting "too friendly" with the local population.
What you probably remember seeing was the wonderful celebration in New York up Fifth Avenue to Harlem. Before much of the footage of African Americans in WW1 was found and catalogued, an idea circulated about this so called 'parade' in Paris."
African-American music became lastingly popular...
Gospel is regularly performed by this and other Black groups, and French Parisians learn it.
Sidney Bechet's tie to Paris
began with disaster and ended with triumph.
His first stay (in 1921-1929) concluded with 11 months in jail for accidentally shooting a woman. Back in the U.S. he opened a tailor shop to make ends meet, where musicians would come and play with him at the rear of the store. Unappreciated otherwise, he felt that the US had no room for him and in 1951, returned to France. He became legendary and remained there until his death in 1959.
Ursuline Kairson in the park named after the great singer.
Kairson arrived in Paris with the Broadway show Bubbling Brown Sugar, starred at the Paradis Latin cabaret, then in the musical Maya, une voix at the Festival d'Avignon and in Paris (please click and scroll) as well as in innumerable Parisian venues.
Entrée to Black Paris
This park too named after a famous Black American performer.
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Josephine Baker, one of the first international stars, has...
- Entered the Panthéon (the secular mausoleum)...
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Entrée to Black Paris, March 21 2021 |
The television station France 24 then interviewed Monique Wells, who publishes Entrée to Black Paris and guides visits that focus on African-Americans.
- Had a square named after her...
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| Claude Abron |
Inauguration of place Joséphine Baker, 14th, with the local mayor and Ursuline Kairson.
- A poster that inspires ads. Bus stops in the 13th:
Entrée to Black Paris
169 boulevard de l'Hopital,13th
A bas-relief
- A musical for her centennial on the Paris scene:
Entrée to Black Paris
Jill Danger, Facebook
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More:
Entrée to Black Paris
Photo and write-up, Entry to Black Paris
Entry to Black Paris, instagram
Monique Wells, blog writer and tour guide on the Black diaspora in Paris (since 2019), on a wharf of the Seine. Photos for the award-winning blog appear on these pages.
Photo in the write-up for the show "WAX!" at the musée de l'Homme, 2025.
Recommended YouTube video of talk on the 18th-century African-American writer Phyllis Wheatley.
Shelley Bell, co-founder of the Black Caucus for Democrats Abroad, mobilizes for the left. Next to her, Marti Demetrion, secretary.
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