Think Paris, and the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées and haute couture come to mind. But the City of Light also is rich in African-American history. Keeping this history alive are tour companies that share it, up close and personal, with visitors to France.
From legendary entertainer Josephine Baker to internationally acclaimed artist Henry Ossawa Tanner to World War I’s ragtime-and-jazz-playing “Harlem Hellfighters,” Paris has embraced African-American culture like few other places. Because of that legendary embrace — one that black folks in the States had heard about since the 1800s — Paris loomed large in their imaginations. To many who didn’t always feel welcome in their native country, the city sounded like a place where they could emotionally exhale.
“It’s always been about freedom for us,” says Marcus Bruce, the Benjamin E. Mays Professor of Religious Studies at Bates College and author of “Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography.” He’s now researching a book on African-Americans at the worldwide Paris Exposition of 1900 and exploring their Parisian lives in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Legendary Harlem-born author James Baldwin, who left for Paris in 1948, said “African-Americans discover in Paris the terms by which they can define themselves. It’s the freedom to work beyond the assumptions of what we can and can’t do as African-Americans. It’s a different rhythm and pace. We can imagine ourselves in new ways in that space.”
That’s where these treks through African-American history come in.
Walking the Spirit Tours
Julia Browne launched Walking the Spirit Tours in 1994, and it became the first company to focus specifically on black American history in Paris.
Back then, she says, “I’d contact travel agents in the States and they would say, ‘Why would people want to do that?'” Times have changed for Browne, who is based near Toronto and frequently travels to France to lead tours.
For example, Browne’s “Writers, Artists & Intellectuals” tour traipses through the lively Latin Quarter and chic Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Her guests get to peek inside the Parisian café where Richard Wright wrote, and see the urban landscapes that inspired Boston-born painter Lois Mailou Jones. “The Entertainers” tour strolls still-vibrant Montmartre, the quartier where both Josephine Baker and Ada “Bricktop” Smith once owned clubs.
Read more here: CNN
