37. She Had to Work as a Child
Josephine Baker’s purported father abandoned the family soon after her birth. Soon thereafter, her mother married a nice man, with whom she had three more children. However, Baker’s stepfather had trouble getting or hanging on to a job, and his chronic unemployment forced the family ever deeper into poverty. Her mother took in laundry, and at age eight, Baker pitched in to help make ends meet by working as a live-in domestic and babysitter for white families, who often instructed the black child not to “kiss the baby”. Her employers were sometimes abusive, such as the one who burned Josephine’s hands as punishment for putting too much soap in the laundry.