Claudia Jones
Claudia Jones | |
---|---|
Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago | |
Died | 24 December 1964 London, England | (aged 49)
Resting place | Highgate Cemetery |
Nationality | Trinidadian |
Other names | Claudia Cumberbatch Jones |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, activist |
Years active | 1936–1964 |
Known for | Organiser of 1959 Caribbean carnival event, precursor of the Notting Hill Carnival. Founder of West Indian Gazette, Britain's first major Black community newspaper. Communist activism. |
Political party | Communist Party USA, Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) |
Criminal charges | Charged under the McCarran Act |
Criminal penalty | Imprisonment and eventual deportation to the United Kingdom |
Relatives | Trevor Carter (cousin) |
Claudia Vera Jones (
Early life
Claudia Vera Cumberbatch was born in
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.[8]
In 1936, trying to find organisations supporting the
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."[15]
Jones focused on growing the party's 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.[16] 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 "women's question". She insisted on the development in the party of theoretical training of women comrades, the organisation of women into mass organisations, daytime classes for women, and "babysitter" funds to allow for women's activism.[15]
"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
The bourgeoisie is fearful of the militancy of the Negro woman, and for good reason. The capitalists know, far better than many progressives seem to know, that once Negro women begin to take action, the militancy of the whole Negro people, and thus of the anti-imperialist coalition, is greatly enhanced.
Historically, the Negro woman has been the guardian, the protector, of the Negro family... As mother, as Negro, and as worker, the Negro woman fights against the wiping out of the Negro family, against the
Jim Crowghetto existence which destroys the health, morale, and very life of millions of her sisters, brothers, and children.Viewed in this light, it is not accidental that the American bourgeoisie has intensified its oppression, not only of the Negro people in general, but of Negro women in particular. Nothing so exposes the drive to fascization in the nation as the callous attitude which the bourgeoisie displays and cultivates toward Negro women.[18]
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
In 1951, aged 36 and in prison, she suffered her first heart attack.[14] 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,[20] specifically activities against the United States government.[4] The charges against Jones related to an article she had written for the magazine Political Affairs under the title "Women in the Struggle for Peace and Security".[12] 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.[14] She was released on 23 October 1955.[21]
She was refused entry to
United Kingdom activism
Jones arrived in London two weeks later, at a time when the
Activism
Jones found a community that needed active organisation.
Supported by her cousin Trevor Carter, and her friends
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.[24]
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."
Jones wrote in her last published essay, "The Caribbean Community in Britain", in Freedomways (Summer 1964):[29]
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.
Always strapped for cash, WIG folded eight months and four editions after Jones's death in December 1964.[14]
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 earlier disturbances in Robin Hood Chase, Nottingham.[30] 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.[14]
As a result, Claudia identified the need to "wash the taste of Notting Hill and Nottingham out of our mouths".
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."
Death
Jones died in London 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
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.[39] A message from Paul Robeson was read out:[20]
It was a great privilege to have known Claudia Jones. She was a vigorous and courageous leader of the Communist Party of the United States, and was very active in the work for the unity of white and coloured peoples and for dignity and equality, especially for the Negro people and for women.
Works
In the 1950s, Jones published a column called "Half of the World" in the Daily Worker newspaper.
- Articles
- "Discussion Article", Political Affairs (August 1943)
- "For New Approaches to Our Work among Women", Political Affairs (August 1948)
- "Women Crusade for Peace," The Worker Magazine (1950)
- "100 Women's Delegates Back World Peace Plea", Daily Worker (1950)
- "International Women's Day and the Struggle for Peace", Political Affairs (March 1950)
- "Claudia Jones Writes from Ellis Island", Daily Worker (8 November 1950)
- "For the Unity of Women in the Case of Peace", Political Affairs (1951)
- "Warmakers Fear America's Women," Daily Worker (1951)
- "For the Unity of Women in the Cause of Peace!", Political Affairs (February 1951)
- "Foster’s Political and Theoretical Guidance to Our Work among Women", Political Affairs (March 1951)
- "Call Negro Women to Sojourn for Justice", Daily Worker (20 September 1951)
- "Sojourners for Truth and Justice", The Worker Magazine (1952)
- "The Struggle for Peace in the United States", Political Affairs (1952))
- "Her Words Rang Out beyond the Walls of the Courthouse", Daily Worker (21 November 1952)
- "American Imperialism and the British West Indies", Political Affairs (April 1958)
- "The Caribbean Community in Britain", Freedomways (1964)
- "First Lady of the World: I Talk with Mme Sun Yat–Sen", West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News (November 1964)
- "An End to the Neglect of the Problems of Negro Women, June 1949", Political Affairs (March 1974)
- Book chapters
- "Claudia Jones," Communists Speak to the Court (1953)[40]
- Books
- Autobiographical History (6 December 1955 – unpublished)
- Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment: Autobiographical Reflections, Essays, and Poems (2011)[41]
Legacy and influence
The
The Claudia Jones Organisation was founded in London in 1982 by Yvette Thomas and others[43] to support and empower women and families of African-Caribbean heritage.[44][45]
Winsome Pinnock's 1989 play A Rock in Water was inspired by the life of Claudia Jones.[46][47]
Jones is named on the list of 100 Great Black Britons (2003 and 2020)[48] and in the 2020 book.[49]
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".[50][51]
In October 2008, Britain's Royal Mail commemorated Jones with a special postage stamp.[52]
She is the subject of a documentary film by Z. Nia Reynolds, Looking for Claudia Jones (2010).[53]
In 2018 Jones was named by the
Jones appeared as a prominent character in
On 14 October 2020, Jones was honoured with a Google Doodle.[58]
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.[3]
A sculpture of Claudia Jones by artist Favour Jonathan, created as part of the 2021 Sky Arts series Landmark, is on display at Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.[59]
In January 2023, English Heritage announced that a blue plaque would be unveiled later that year on a house in Vauxhall that Jones shared for almost four years.[60]
In June 2023, Jones was listed as one of the Windrush generation who struggled for civil rights in the UK.[61]
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.[62]
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.
See also
- Trevor Carter
- Billy Strachan
- Len Johnson
- Dorothy Kuya
- Paul Robeson
- Buzz Johnson
- Cleston Taylor
- Winston Pinder
- Communist Party of the USA
References
- ^ Taylor, Jeremy (May 2008). "Excavating Claudia". Caribbean Review of Books.
- ^ Roach-McFarlane, Ashley (21 March 2021). "The Forgotten Legacy of Claudia Jones: a Black Communist Radical Feminist". Verso. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8223-4116-1.
- ISBN 9780203417805.
- S2CID 234864146.
- City of Phoenix. Archived from the original(PDF) on 10 October 2014.
- ^ Azikiwe, Abayomi (6 February 2013). "Claudia Jones defied racism, sexism and class oppression". Workers World.
- ^ "Claudia Jones". The Rebel Researchers Collective. 23 December 2012. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014.
- ^ "Claudia Jones, Communist". The Marxist-Leninist. 1 March 2010.
- ^ Davis, Mary (9 March 2015). "Claudia Jones: Communist, anti-racist and feminist". Morning Star. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
- ^ S2CID 238292287.
- ISSN 1929-235X.
- ^ S2CID 144401595. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2011 – via Institute of Race Relations.
- ^ S2CID 161970928.
- OCLC 696318589.
- ^ Mohammed, Sagal (25 July 2020). "Marxist, Feminist, Revolutionary: Remembering Notting Hill Carnival Founder Claudia Jones". Vogue. Condé Nast.
- Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent(1992), Vintage pb edition, 1993, p. 262.
- ^ "Ouster Ordered of Claudia Jones; Hearing Officer Finds Her an Alien Who Became Member of Communist Party Alien Registration Affidavit Additional Charge Sustained" (PDF). The New York Times. 22 December 1950. Retrieved 27 June 2012. (subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e f Mahamdallie, Hassan (13 October 2004). "Claudia Jones". Socialist Worker. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
- ^ "Claudia Jones Loses; Communist Facing Ouster Is Denied Stay to Aid Charney" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 November 1955. Retrieved 27 June 2012. (subscription required)
- ^ "Red Agrees to Leave Country" (PDF). The New York Times. 18 November 1955. Retrieved 27 June 2012. (subscription required)
- ^ "Claudia Jones". Woman's Hour. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
- ^ a b "Claudia Jones". Black History Month. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2011.; unavailable 1 Feb. 2023
- ^ a b c Baku, Shango. "Claudia Jones Remembered". ITZ Caribbean. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
- ISSN 0955-2359.
- ^ "West Indian Gazette cover July 1962". Lambeth Landmark. 31 January 2018.
- ^ Thomson, Ian (29 August 2009). "Here To Stay". The Guardian.
- ^ Jones, Claudia, "The Caribbean Community in Britain", Freedomways V. 4 (Summer 1964), 341–57. Quoted in McClendon III, John H., "Jones, Claudia (1915–1964)", Blackpast.org.
- ^ a b c "Claudia Jones (1915–1964)". Black History Pages. Archived from the original on 3 January 2018.
- ^ "City Air Makes One Free". The City Speaks | Staden Talar. 20 August 2012.
- ^ a b Funk, Ray (November–December 2009). "Notting Hill Carnival: Mas and the mother country". Caribbean Beat. No. 100.
- ^ "History: 1959 – Elements of Caribbean Carnival". Notting Hill Carnival '14. Archived from the original on 11 July 2014.
- ^ Notes, "(1954) Edric Connor & The Caribbeans – Songs from Jamaica", folkcatalogue.
- ^ "Collection items | Claudia Jones' Caribbean Carnival Souvenir programme, 1960". British Library. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
- ^ Frazer-Carroll, Micha (8 March 2022). "Black families found joy in creativity – we must preserve this extraordinary legacy". The Guardian.
- London Evening Standard.
- ^ Younge, Gary (17 August 2002). "The politics of partying". The Guardian.
- ^ Edwards, Rhiannon (5 October 2012). "Claudia Jones celebrated at Highgate Cemetery". Ham & High. Archived from the original on 23 March 2014.
- ^ Jones, Claudia; Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley (1953). Communists Speak to the Court: Thirteen Communists Speak to the Court. New Century Publishers. pp. 19–26. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
- ^
Jones, Claudia (2011). Carole Boyce Davies (ed.). Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment: Autobiographical Reflections, Essays, and Poems. Ayebia Clarke Publishing Limited. LCCN 2011489968. Afterword by Alrick X. Cambridge.
- ^ "National Union of Journalists (NUJ): Claudia Jones memorial lecture". www.nuj.org.uk.
- ^ Lewis, Lester. "Claudia Jones Organisation: Celebrating 21 Years of Service to the Black Community". Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ "Welcome to Claudia Jones Organisation".
- ^ Margaret Busby; Nia Reynolds (5 March 2014). "Buzz Johnson obituary". The Guardian.
- ^ Reid, Tricia (March 1989). "Claudia". West Indian Digest. No. 161. pp. 29–30.
- ISSN 0163-3821.
- ^ "100 Great Black Britons – 100 Nominees". 100 Great Black Britons. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ "100 Great Black Britons – The Book". 100 Great Black Britons. 2020. Archived from the original on 12 February 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ "Claudia Jones Blue Plaque unveiled". ITZ Caribbean. 22 August 2008.
- ^ "Claudia Jones". Open Plaques.
- The British Postal Museum & Archiveblog, 27 August 2010.
- ^ "Looking for Claudia Jones trailer", Blackstock Films, 2010.
- ^ Chambers, Georgia (11 October 2018). "Inspirational Black British women throughout history". London Evening Standard.
- ^ Arboine, Niellah (8 March 2019). "7 Black British Women Throughout History That Deserve To Be Household Names In 2019". Bustle.
- ^ Armitstead, Claire (27 April 2021). "'I wanted to capture the joy': J'Ouvert writer Yasmin Joseph on bringing Europe's biggest carnival to the stage". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
- ^ Akbar, Arifa (24 June 2021). "J'Ouvert review – the history of Notting Hill carnival comes to life". The Guardian]. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
- ^ "Celebrating Claudia Jones", Google, 14 October 2020.
- ^ Soriano, Kathleen (13 September 2021). "Landmark on Sky Arts: The South | Art UK". artuk.org. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ "2023 Blue Plaques". English Heritage. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ Motune, Vic (June 2023). "Windrush generation's battle for civil rights". The Voice. p. 4.
- ^ Dowlat, Rhondor (21 February 2015). "Claudia Jones' life remembered". Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
Sources
- Claudia Jones, "We Seek Full Equality for Women (1949)."
- ISBN 978-0946918027.
- ISBN 978-0853158820.
- "Claudia Jones", Special issue: BASA Newsletter #44, January 2006
- ISBN 978-0822341161.
- Carole Boyce Davies, Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment, Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978-0956240163.
Further reading
- Boyce Davies, C. (2023). A Right to Be Radical: Claudia Jones (1915–1964) and the “Super-Exploitation of the Black Woman”. In: de Haan, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Communist Women Activists around the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13127-1_4
- Clarke, Camryn S. (2017). Escaping the Master's House: Claudia Jones & The Black Marxist Feminist Tradition. Senior Theses and Projects (Thesis). Hartford, Connecticut: Senior Theses, Trinity College – via Senior Theses and Projects, Trinity College Digital Repository.
- de Haan, Francisca (2023). The Palgrave Handbook of Communist Women Activists around the World. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-031-13126-4.
- NYU Press, 2011.
- de Haan, Francisca (2013). "Eugénie Cotton, Pak Chong-ae, and Claudia Jones: Rethinking Transnational Feminism and International Politics". S2CID 201794308.
- Guy-Sheftall, Beverly, Words of Fire: an Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. The New Press, 1995.
- Howard, Walter T. We Shall Be Free!: Black Communist Protests in Seven Voices. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2013.
- Marable, Manning, & Leith Mullings, Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.
- Washington, Mary Helen, "Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry and Claudia Jones: Black Women Write the Popular Front", in Bill V. Mullin and James Smethurst (eds), Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism and 20th Century United States Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
External links
- Claudia Jones Archive at marxists.org
- List of 100 Great Black Britons Archived 13 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- "Claudia Jones", Exploring 20th Century London.
- "Mother of the Mas", biodata for Claudia Cumberbatch Jones, Fox Carnival Band.
- Ian Thomson, "Here To Stay", The Guardian, 29 August 2009 – article on Donald Hinds, referencing Claudia Jones.
- "Claudia Jones The Black Woman that created London Carnival", blackhistorywalks, 27 March 2009. YouTube video.
- Anna Clarke, "Remembering Claudia Jones, pioneer of the Notting Hill Carnival", The Daily Telegraph, 26 September 2018.
- Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare. Lesson by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca (Claudia Jones is featured in this lesson).