Baker’s weaponization of her public persona to obtain intelligence demonstrates an overlooked story of African American female agency that suggests an alternative narrative to the dominant white male centered story regarding both WWII and related espionage. As Hannah Diamond observes in her book Josephine Baker’s Secret War: “The war [for Baker] was so important; it’s the missing piece of her puzzle. She [Baker] was amazingly well equipped to be a spy; a performer, through and through. Her motivation came from the huge debt she felt to France, which had made her a star – and it had its roots in the racism she grew up with.” Adding on to Diamond’s argument, this essay argues that fighting prejudice in all its forms is Baker’s principled legacy. Her experiences of racial discrimination—particularly witnessing the 1917 East St. Louis race riot—lay the foundation for her lifelong fight against racism, first by galvanizing her risky yet autonomous decision to move to France; then by informing her decision to fight Nazism by working as a spy for France. Ultimately, her double life as both a Black femme fatale and a secret agent of the French Resistance shaped her ideology and activism during the American Civil Rights Movement. Baker was far more than just a showgirl; she was a risk-taker and a trailblazer who fought against antisemitism abroad and racism and discrimination at home.