4 BAKER, Josephine. NAACP luncheon honouring Josephine Baker. New York: Theresa Photos, 20 May 1951 josephine baker honoured for fighting segregation Superb panoramic photograph of the banquet at the Hotel Theresa, “The Waldorf of Harlem”, in honour of Josephine Baker and her efforts fighting segregation, a celebration organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) who had declared her their Woman of the Year. “On her special day, Josephine rode on the back of a cream- coloured convertible as the 27-car motorcade moved slowly down 7th Avenue. 100,000 people lined the street and hung from upstairs windows and fire escapes for a chance to see her” (Caravantes, p. 110). At the doors to the hotel Baker was presented with a bouquet of roses by a contingent of 1,500 Girl Scouts. In the image Josephine sits at the head of the table, with Thurgood Marshall, future first Black justice of the Supreme Court, to her left. The event was organized by the president of the New York branch Lindsay H. White, chairman Bessie Buchanan, and co-chairman John Hammond. “That night, the mayor of New York, Vincent Impellitteri, gave a cocktail party in her honour. Five thousand people danced that evening in the Golden Gate Ballroom. Such a turnout encouraged Josephine to continue her tour to push for civil rights. At that point in her life, it appeared nothing could stop her” (ibid., p. 110). Her next scheduled engagement was to speak at the
NAACP Convention in Atlanta, but her participation was cancelled after she was unable to reserve a hotel room due to a Georgia law that threatened the revocation of a hotel’s licence if it allowed a reservation by a Black client. The subsequent negative press coverage drew death threats from the Ku Klux Klan, not the first time Baker had been thus threatened. This is a fine celebratory image from a remarkable career of artistry and activism. We have not come across another such print on the market. Original silver gelatin photograph (254 × 510 mm), pale sepia tint, title and credits in the negative. A couple of creased areas in the lower margin, one with splits, image unaffected, some browning verso. Framed in black and gilt wood with conservation acrylic glazing (363 × 642 mm). ¶ Peggy Caravantes, The Many Faces of Josephine Baker , 2015. £1,750 [145997] 5 BLAIR, Tony. Three-page typed letter signed to Glenda Jackson regarding the Iraq War. London: 10 Downing Street, 4 November 2002 “his military planning allows for some of the wmd to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them” A compelling letter on the defining decision of Tony Blair’s premiership, the invasion of Iraq, sent five months before the
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