Claudia Jones

Claudia Jones was a smart, politically wise, brilliant, transnational feminist, Pan African theorist and cultural activist who initiated political ideas and strategies that are now seen as a necessary way of intersecting a variety of political fields and positions. Known as the founder of the first London carnival and the editor of the first black newspaper, her activism bridged the black world politics of decolonisation and contemporary community empowerment. For the first time, her essays, poetry and writings are here brought together.

In Left of Karl Marx, Carole Boyce Davies assesses the activism, writing, and legacy of Claudia Jones (1915–1964), a pioneering Afro-Caribbean radical intellectual, dedicated communist, and feminist. Jones is buried in London’s Highgate Cemetery, to the left of Karl Marx—a location that Boyce Davies finds fitting given how Jones expanded Marxism-Leninism to incorporate gender and race in her political critique and activism. Claudia Cumberbatch Jones was born in Trinidad. In 1924, she moved to New York, where she lived for the next thirty years. She was active in the Communist Party from her early twenties onward. A talented writer and speaker, she traveled throughout the United States lecturing and organizing. In the early 1950s, she wrote a well-known column, “Half the World,” for the Daily Worker. As the U.S. government intensified its efforts to prosecute communists, Jones was arrested several times. She served nearly a year in a U.S. prison before being deported and given asylum by Great Britain in 1955. There she founded The West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News and the Caribbean Carnival, an annual London festival that continues today as the Notting Hill Carnival. Boyce Davies examines Jones’s thought and journalism, her political and community organizing, and poetry that the activist wrote while she was imprisoned. Looking at the contents of the FBI file on Jones, Boyce Davies contrasts Jones’s own narration of her life with the federal government’s. Left of Karl Marx establishes Jones as a significant figure within Caribbean intellectual traditions, black U.S. feminism, and the history of communism.

A new edition of the groundbreaking biography of activist, newspaper editor and community organiser, Claudia Jones, featuring a preface by Black feminist writer, Lola Olufemi, and an appendix of new research. This is the first book in Lawrence Wishart's new Black Women Radicals series.

Activist, journalist, and visionary Claudia Jones was one of the most important advocates of emancipation in the twentieth century. Arguing for a socialist future and the total emancipation of working people, Jones’s legacy made an enduring mark on both sides of the Atlantic. This ground-breaking biography traces Jones’s remarkable life and work, beginning with her immigration to the United States and culminating in her advocacy for the emancipation of the most oppressed. Denise Lynn reveals how Jones’s radicalism was forged through confronting American racism, and how her disillusionment led to a life committed to socialist liberation. But this activism came at a cost: Jones would be expelled from the US for being a communist. Deported to England, she took up the mantle of anti-colonial liberation movements. Despite the innumerable obstacles in her way, Jones never wavered in her commitments. In her tireless resistance to capitalism, racism, and sexism, she envisioned an equitable future devoted to peace and humanity – a vision that we all must continue to fight for today.

Claudia Jones is missing. Her classmates are thinking the worst . . . or at least the weirdest. It couldn't be an alien abduction, right? None of Claudia's classmates at Blithedale High know why she vanished—and they're dealing with their own issues. Emily's trying to handle a life-changing surprise. Paula's hoping to step out of Emily's shadow. Nigel just wants to meet a girl who will laugh at his jokes. And Brett hardly lets himself get close to anybody. In Losing the Girl, the first book in the Life on Earth trilogy, Eisner-nominated cartoonist MariNaomi looks at life through the eyes of four suburban teenagers: early romance, fraying friendships, and the traces of a mysterious—maybe otherworldly—disappearance. Different chapters focus on different characters, each with a unique visual approach.

Every year over a million people pack the streets of London's Notting Hill for Carnival, but as the carnival-goers soak up the sights, sounds and smells of the festival, few appreciate that its founder died in poverty on Christmas Eve in the bitterly cold winter of 1964, the end of a life dogged by struggle and illness. Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile is the first book to chart the life and work this visionary and pioneer. Born in Trinidad in 1915, Claudia Jone's family moved to Harlem, New York, where the young Claudia became a leading figure in Communist and black politics. Forced into exile in Britain in 1955, Jones arrived in London penniless and friendless. She became active in civil rights campaigns amongst the new West Indian communities established in the capital and launched an annual Carnival to showcase the talents and culture of the Afro-Caribbean community. The book's particular focus is on the time that Jones spent in Britain Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile is a fitting and long overdue testament to a remarkable woman who was quite simply years ahead of her time Marika Sherwood has published many articles on various aspects of the history of black people in Britain. A founder member of the Black and Asian Studies Association, she is still its secretary, conference organiser, and editor of its Newsletter. Her most recent books are The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited, with Akim Adi (1995), and Kwame Nkrumah: the Years Abroad 1935-1947 (1996)

A collection of guided tours throughout London Black History Walks invites the reader to see their surroundings with new eyes.