A MAN who as a child was cared for by 1920s Paris pin-up queen Josephine Baker has claimed a moral victory after forcing the US postal service to accept postcards featuring the bare-breasted "Black Venus".Link
The trouble started last year when Jean-Claude Baker, a New York restaurateur who Josephine apparently described as the 13th of her 12 adopted children, decided to mail out 15,000 postcards promoting his business.
The picture he chose dated from 1926 and showed the legendary African-American dancer, singer and cultural icon posing topless in her feather costume from the Folies-Bergeres music hall in Paris.
"I found this very pretty picture, it was very sweet,'' Mr Baker said, explaining how before printing the postcards, a friend suggested he clear the watercolour with the US postal service.
"When I went there, the teller said 'This is not at all acceptable. This is pornographic advertising!' The other tellers and people started to gather around. It was humiliating,'' Mr Baker said.
Not to be beaten, Mr Baker asked his printers to superimpose a banner stamped with the word "censored'' over the offending breasts, but again the post office refused to accept the cards.
He went ahead and posted the cards with a larger "censored'' banner, but not before contacting a leading civil liberties organisation.
Talks between New York Civil Liberties Union and the US postal service established that the tellers were wrong and the mail carrier eventually agreed to accept the cards.
He is now planning to resend the cards next week in their full, uncensored, original splendor.
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