Claudia Jones - Black History Month✨

Mary_Scope

Part One - Black History Month 2025

Claudia Jones was born in Trinidad on 21st February 1915. She moved to America with her family when she was 8 and fought lifelong health battles as a result of growing up in poverty. Claudia was a prominent activist in America as she fought for equality before she was deported to the United Kingdom as a result of McCarthyism in 1955.

In the UK, she became involved in the British African-Caribbean community and 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.

Claudia also helped organise campaigns against the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill. She also founded the Conference of Afro-Asian-Caribbean Organisations (CAACO), campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela and spoke out against racism in the workplace.

She founded Britain’s first major black newspaper which was called the West Indian Gazette and set up the Caribbean Carnival in 1959 as a show of resistance to the race riots of 1958 in London. This is precursor to the world famous Notting Hill Carnival!

Claudia died in London on Christmas Eve 1964, she was 49. Her funeral was on 9th January 1965 and was a large political ceremony with her burial plot to the left of the tomb of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery, North London.