Ricki Stevenson

Historian, Journalist, Founder/CEO Black Paris Tours
Ricki Stevenson, known as the Bay Area’s Ambassador to Paris was born in Oakland, CA. Her mother, raised in Denver, was a former professional dancer, who at one time danced with Louis Armstrong’s Band, while her Father, from Oklahoma, was a singer before joining the Navy and meeting his wife in San Francisco during the Korean War.

At age 3 Ricki’s Mom took her to see Josephine Baker perform in Los Angeles. She was 11years old when her parents took her to meet James Baldwin and hear him read from his book, THE FIRE NEXT TIME on Stanford campus. (12 years later she would interview and spend time with Baldwin in NYC)

From then on, there were two things Ricki dreamed of:

1. Becoming a broadcast journalist to tell “our side of the story.

2. To one day live and work in Paris

Ricki has lived her dreams, starting with a 25 year career in radio and television, launched in Nashville, TN with help from Oprah Winfrey.

8 months later Ricki was in NYC, anchoring rationally broadcast radio newscasts for National Black Network, while serving as a United Nations correspondent and the producer of “Black Issues and the Black Press.” After 7 years, Ricki returned to the Bay Area anchoring at KCBS news radio in San Francisco. Then the switch to television, as a Silicon Valley business reporter with “Business Today” nationally seen on Business News Network.

With marriage and a child, she lived the fascinating life of a trailing wife in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, before returning to the US and becoming the first Black woman hired as an international travel reporter by the San Francisco based News Travel Network. For 6 years her travel reports were seen on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, SkyNews and Northwest Airlines. After 3 years at KRON TV as an anchor-talk show host that Ricki decided to make Paris a reality!

In 1997 she and daughter Dedie moved to Paris. She admits what was to have been a one year stay turned into 26 years, following the launch of her company BLACK PARIS TOURS! Over the last 25 years Her tours have introduced 100,000 travelers to the rich legacy of African, Caribbean and African American history in the City of Light.

Black Paris Tour received Trip Advisor’s 2023 TRAVELERS CHOICE AWARD and was inducted into their Hall of Fame after being honored for excellence for seven consecutive years. Ricki and Black Paris Tours were also inducted into “Black Legends of Silicon Valley” class of 2022.

Black Paris Tours received US Congressional recognition for telling the stories of Black soldiers who fought and died in France during WWI and WWII and has been recognized by the French government for keeping Josephine Baker’s story alive…invited to attend formal ceremonies inducting “the Black Venus” into the Pantheon in November, 2021.

Black Paris Tours has been profiled in dozens of newspaper articles, magazines and books. She estimates they’ve done tours for 100,000 guests since 1998, among them a long list of famed celebrities: Questlove, Smokey Robinson, Steve Harvey, Iyanla Van Zant, Michael Eric Dyson, Colin Kaepernick, Tramaine Hawkins and Cornell Belcher of MSNBC…just to name a few.

Black Paris Tours now ranks among the top “Must See” things to do and experience in Paris.