Josephine Baker 1928

Josephine Baker was a dancer, singer, and actress, born in the US but became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French she became an international musical and political icon. She was given nicknames such as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess". Baker was the first African-American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), and was a world-famous entertainer.
Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Her agent's brother approached her about working for the French government as an "honorable correspondent" – basically her role required that if she happened to hear any gossip at parties that might be of use to France, she should report it. Baker immediately agreed - she was against the Nazi stand on race, firstly because she was black but also because her husband was Jewish. Her café-society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in the know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and to report back what she heard. She attended parties at the Italian embassy without any suspicion falling on her and gathered information. She helped in the war effort in other ways, such as by sending Christmas presents to French soldiers. When the Germans invaded France, Baker left Paris and went to the Château des Milandes, her home in the south of France, where she had Belgian refugees living with her and others who were eager to help the ‘Free French’ effort led from England by Charles de Gaulle. As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations such as Portugal, and returning to France. Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music. Baker helped a lot of people who were in danger from the Nazis get visas and passports to leave France.
After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received several honours such as the Croix de guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and was even offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination; however she turned it down.