New York City
Where did Claudia Jones live from 1924 to 1955?
Claudia Jones Claudia Jones , née Claudia Vera Cumberbatch ( 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964 ) , was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist . As a child , she migrated with her family to the US , where she became a Communist political activist , feminist and black nationalist , adopting the name Jones as self-protective disinformation . Due to the political persecution of Communists in the US , she was deported in 1955 and subsequently lived in the United Kingdom . Upon arriving in the UK , she immediately joined the Communist Party of Great Britain ( CPGB ) , and would remain a member for the rest of her life . She then founded Britains first major black newspaper the West Indian Gazette ( WIG ) in 1958 , and played a central role in founding the Notting Hill Carnival , the second largest annual carnival in the world . Early life . Claudia Vera Cumberbatch was born in Trinidad , then a colony of the British Empire , on 21 February 1915 . When she was eight years old , her family emigrated to New York City following the post-war cocoa price crash in Trinidad . Her mother died five years later , and her father eventually found work to support the family . Jones won the Theodore Roosevelt Award for Good Citizenship at her junior high school . In 1932 , due to poor living conditions in Harlem , she was struck with tuberculosis at the age of 17 , The tuberculosis caused irreparable damaged to her lungs leading to lengthy stays in hospitals throughout her life . She graduated from high school , but her family could not afford the expenses to attend her graduation ceremony . United States career . Despite being academically bright , being classed as an immigrant woman severely limited Jones career choices . Instead of going to college she began working in a laundry , and subsequently found other retail work in Harlem . During this time she joined a drama group , and began to write a column called Claudia Comments for a Harlem journal . In 1936 , trying to find organisations supporting the Scottsboro Boys , she joined the Young Communist League USA . The American communist movements opposition to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia , was another factor which prompted Jones to join the communists . In 1937 she joined the editorial staff of the Daily Worker , rising by 1938 to become editor of the Weekly Review . After the Young Communist League became American Youth for Democracy during World War II , Jones became editor of its monthly journal , Spotlight . After the war , Jones became executive secretary of the Womens National Commission , secretary for the Womens Commission of the Communist Party USA ( CPUSA ) , and in 1952 took the same position at the National Peace Council . In 1953 , she took over the editorship of Negro Affairs . Black feminist leader in the Communist Party . As a member of the Communist Party USA and a black nationalist and feminist , Jones main focus was on creating an anti-imperialist coalition , managed by working-class leadership , fueled by the involvement of women . Jones focused on growing the partys support for black and white women . Not only did she work towards getting Black women equal respect within the party , Jones also worked for getting Black women specifically respect in being a mother , worker , and woman . She campaigned for job training programs , equal pay for equal work , government controls on food prices , and funding for wartime childcare programs . Jones supported a subcommittee to address the womens question . She insisted on the development in the party of theoretical training of women comrades , the organization of women into mass organizations , daytime classes for women , and babysitter funds to allow for womens activism . An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman! . Jones best known piece of writing , An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman! , appeared in 1949 in the magazine Political Affairs . It exhibits her development of what later came to be termed intersectional analysis within a Marxist framework . In it , she wrote : Deportation . An elected member of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA , Jones also organised and spoke at events . As a result of her membership of CPUSA and various associated activities , in 1948 she was arrested and sentenced to the first of four spells in prison . Incarcerated on Ellis Island , she was threatened with deportation to Trinidad . Following a hearing by the Immigration and Naturalization Service , she was found in violation of the McCarran Act for being an alien ( non-US citizen ) who had joined the Communist Party . Several witnesses testified to her role in party activities , and she had identified herself as a party member since 1936 when completing her Alien Registration on 24 December 1940 , in conformity with the Alien Registration Act . She was ordered to be deported on 21 December 1950 . In 1951 , aged 36 and in prison , she suffered her first heart attack . That same year , she was tried and convicted with 11 others , including her friend Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , of un-American activities under the Smith Act , specifically activities against the United States government . The charges against Jones related to an article she had written for the Political Affairs magazine under the title Women in the Struggle for Peace and Security . The Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal . In 1955 , Jones began her sentence of a year and a day at the Federal Reformatory for Women at Alderson , West Virginia . She was released on 23 October 1955 . She was refused entry to Trinidad and Tobago , in part because the colonial governor Major General Sir Hubert Elvin Rance was of the opinion that she may prove troublesome . She was eventually offered residency in the United Kingdom on humanitarian grounds , and federal authorities agreed to allow it when she agreed to cease contesting her deportation . On 7 December 1955 , at Harlems Hotel Theresa , 350 people met to see her off . United Kingdom activism . Jones arrived in London two weeks later , at a time when the British African-Caribbean community was expanding . Upon her arrival , the Communist Party of Great Britain ( CPGB ) sent several Caribbean communists to greet her . These communist activists included Billy Strachan , Winston Pinder , and Joness cousin Trevor Carter . However , on engaging the political community in the UK , she was disappointed to find that many British communists were hostile to a black woman . She immediately joined the CPGB upon her arrival in Britain and remained a member until her death . Activism . Jones found a community that needed active organisation . She became involved in the British African-Caribbean community to organise both access to basic facilities , as well as the early movement for equal rights . Supported by her cousin Trevor Carter , and her friends Nadia Cattouse , Amy Ashwood Garvey , Beryl McBurnie , Pearl Prescod and her lifelong mentor Paul Robeson , Jones campaigned against racism in housing , education and employment . She addressed peace rallies and the Trade Union Congress , and visited Japan , Russia , and China , where she met with Mao Zedong . In the early 1960s , her health failing , Jones helped organise campaigns against the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill ( passed in April 1962 ) , which would make it harder for non-whites to migrate to Britain . She also campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela , and spoke out against racism in the workplace . West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News , 1958 . From her experiences in the United States , Jones believed that people without a voice were as lambs to the slaughter . In March 1958 above a barbers shop in Brixton , she founded and thereafter edited the West Indian Gazette , its full title subsequently displayed on its masthead as West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News ( WIG ) . The paper became a key contributor to the rise of consciousness within the Black British community . Jones wrote in her last published essay , The Caribbean Community in Britain , in Freedomways ( Summer 1964 ) : Always strapped for cash , WIG folded eight months and four editions after Joness death in December 1964 . Notting Hill riots and Caribbean Carnival , 1959 . In August 1958 , four months after the launch of WIG , the Notting Hill race riots occurred , as well as similar disturbances in Robin Hood Chase , Nottingham . In view of the racially driven analysis of these events by the existing daily newspapers , Jones began receiving visits from members of the black British community and also from various national leaders responding to the concern of their citizens , including Cheddi Jagan of British Guiana , Norman Manley of Jamaica , Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago , as well as Phyllis Shand Allfrey and Carl La Corbinière of the West Indies Federation . As a result , Claudia identified the need to wash the taste of Notting Hill and Nottingham out of our mouths . It was suggested that the British black community should have a carnival ; it was December 1958 , so the next question was : In the winter ? Jones used her connections to gain use of St Pancras Town Hall in January 1959 for the first Mardi-Gras-based carnival , directed by Edric Connor ( who in 1951 had arranged for the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra to appear at the Festival of Britain ) and with the Boscoe Holder Dance Troupe , jazz guitarist Fitzroy Coleman and singer Cleo Laine headlining ; the event was televised nationally by the BBC . These early celebrations were epitomised by the slogan : A peoples art is the genesis of their freedom . A footnote on the front cover of the original 1959 souvenir brochure states : A part of the proceeds [ from the sale ] of this brochure are to assist the payments of fines of coloured and white youths involved in the Notting Hill events . Jones and the West Indian Gazette also organised five other annual indoor Caribbean Carnival cabarets at such London venues as Seymour Hall , Porchester Hall and the Lyceum Ballroom , which events are seen as precursors of the celebration of Caribbean Carnival that culminated in the Notting Hill Carnival . Death . Jones died on Christmas Eve 1964 , aged 49 , and was found on Christmas Day at her flat . A post-mortem declared that she had suffered a massive heart attack , due to heart disease and tuberculosis . Her funeral on 9 January 1965 was a large and political ceremony , with her burial plot selected to be that located to the left of the tomb of her hero , Karl Marx , in Highgate Cemetery , North London . A message from Paul Robeson was read out : Legacy and influence . The National Union of Journalists Black Members Council holds a prestigious annual Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture every October , during Black History Month , to honour Jones and celebrate her contribution to Black-British journalism . The Claudia Jones Organisation was founded in London in 1982 by Yvette Thomas and others to support and empower women and families of African-Caribbean heritage . Winsome Pinnocks 1989 play A Rock in Water was inspired by the life of Claudia Jones . Jones is named on the list of 100 Great Black Britons ( 2003 and 2020 ) and in the 2020 book . In August 2008 , a blue plaque was unveiled on the corner of Tavistock Road and Portobello Road commemorating Claudia Jones as the Mother of Caribbean Carnival in Britain . In October 2008 , Britains Royal Mail commemorated Jones with a special postage stamp . She is the subject of a documentary film by Z . Nia Reynolds , Looking for Claudia Jones ( 2010 ) . In 2018 Jones was named by the Evening Standard on a list of 14 Inspirational black British women throughout history ( alongside Phillis Wheatley , Mary Seacole , Adelaide Hall , Margaret Busby , Olive Morris , Connie Mark , Joan Armatrading , Tessa Sanderson , Doreen Lawrence , Maggie Aderin-Pocock , Sharon White , Malorie Blackman , Diane Abbott and Zadie Smith ) . Bustle magazine included Jones on a list of 7 Black British Women Throughout History That Deserve To Be Household Names In 2019 , together with Mary Prince , Evelyn Dove , Olive Morris , Margaret Busby , Olivette Otele , and Shirley Thompson . On 14 October 2020 , Jones was honoured with a Google Doodle . Many British communists have argued that her participation in the British communist movement has been both obscured and denied by organisations keen to use her image . Commemoration of the 100th anniversary of her birth . Various activities took place from June 2014 onwards . The most successful were possibly those organised by Community Support , which put substantial resources into basic research into aspects of her life and work . This led to new revelations and rediscoveries about Claudia Jones , not included in the three printed biographies , or the film biography . Community Support organised A Claudia Jones 100 Day on the 100th anniversary of her birth at Kennington Park Estate Community Centre on Saturday , 21 February 2015 . This began with a guided tour showing her two main residences while she lived in London , and the former West Indian Gazette office nearby . There was also a celebration at The Cloth , in Belmont , Port of Spain , Trinidad and Tobago , near to her birthplace , on the same day . The Day was associated with an event held on the previous evening at Claudia Jones Organisation in Hackney , which featured a screening of the film Looking for Claudia Jones by Z . Nia Reynolds .