Claudia Jones founded the West Indian Gazette in Brixton, London, in March 1958 and worked as its editor.
Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library
Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library
A pioneering Afro-Caribbean radical intellectual, dedicated communist, and feminist.
Born in Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad, Claudia Vera Cumberbatch was aged nine when her family migrated to New York City in 1924. She was active in the Communist Party and wrote journalistic articles and poetry, mobilized, and traveled the lecture circuit. She used the name Jones as "self-protective disinformation". In the 1950s, she was renowned for the column "Half the World" for the Daily Worker newspaper. During this era of McCarthyism, Jones was constantly arrested, spent nearly a year in prison, and was then deported. However, she received political asylum in Great Britain, where she continued her political organizing.
One of her legacies in London was her work with the West Indian community there, where she founded a Caribbean festival, now known to the world as the Notting Hill Carnival, the largest street festival in Europe. Claudia Jones also founded the West Indian Gazette, the first black newspaper in Britain.
One of her legacies in London was her work with the West Indian community there, where she founded a Caribbean festival, now known to the world as the Notting Hill Carnival, the largest street festival in Europe. Claudia Jones also founded the West Indian Gazette, the first black newspaper in Britain.
"The newspaper has served as a catalyst, quickening the awareness, socially and politically, of West Indians, Afro-Asians and their friends. Its editorial stand is for a united, independent West Indies, full economic, social and political equality and respect for human dignity for West Indians and Afro-Asians in Britain, and for peace and friendship between all Commonwealth and world peoples." Claudia Jones, 1964
Claudia Jones delivers a speech as a delegate to 10th World Conference against Hydrogen and Atom Bombs in Japan, 1964
(Left of Karl Marx Chronology, p. xxvi.)
Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library
(Left of Karl Marx Chronology, p. xxvi.)
Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library
