THE JOURNALIST Claudia Jones

A well-dressed Black woman with her hair pulled back into a bun sits at a desk covered with newsprint, reading a copy of a newspaper titled "West Indian Gazette." — Claudia Jones at the office of the West Indian Gazette, the newspaper she founded in London

Claudia Jones (born Claudia Cumberbatch) was a journalist, Black Nationalist and prominent member of the American Communist Party. Emigrating from Trinidad to NYC at eight years old, she was an extremely well-known peace activist and worked toward civil rights and women’s rights in America. Arrested for giving a speech promoting peace and women’s rights, in 1955 she was deported to England. There she founded the nation’s first Black newspaper, continued her work fighting racism and sexism, and founded the famous Notting Hill Carnival to promote understanding between white Londoners and their Caribbean immigrant neighbors.

Our guest is Dr. Carole Boyce-Davies, Professor of Africana Studies and English at Cornell University and author of Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones.

Photos by permission of Carole Boyce Davies unless otherwise indicated.

Claudia Jones and Abhimanyu Manchanda at the office of the West Indian Gazette

Manifest showing Claudia Cumberbatch’s arrival in NYC

Birth certificate of Claudia Cumberbatch

Claudia Jones’ last passport, showing profession “typist” corrected to “journalist”

Claudia Jones leading a protest march in London

The first ever Notting Hill Carnival, 1966
public domain

Claudia Jones was honored with a postage stamp as part of the UK’s “Women of Distinction” campaign
public domain

“The Scottsboro Boys” whose unfair convictions first led Claudia to activism

Notting Hill Carnival, 2005
photo by Chris O.

Notting Hill Carnival, 2005
photo by C. G. P. Grey

Carole Boyce Davies’ book on Claudia Jones grave at Highgate Cemetery
photo by Carole Boyce Davies

Claudia Jones’ grave, directly “left of Karl Marx” at Highgate Cemetery
photo from Cumberbatch.org

Dr. Carole Boyce-Davies is Professor of Africana Studies and English at Cornell University. She has held distinguished professorships at a number of institutions, including the Herskovits Professor of African Studies and Professor of Comparative Literary Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject (Routledge, 1994) and Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones (Duke University Press, 2008).