Previous page | She was chiefly concerned with the oppression of black women and the roles assigned to them. Viewing sexism as another form of fascism, she set out to "inspire the growing struggles of American women and heighten their consciousness of the need for militant united front campaigns around the burning issues of the day, against monopoly capitalism, against war and fascism." On the radical potential of black women, she asserted that " the capitalists know, far better than many progressives seem to know, that once Negro women undertake action, the militancy of the whole Negro people, and thus of the anti-imperialist coalition, is greatly enhanced."

In 1948, during the McCarthy era, she was arrested, convicted for "advocating overthrow of Government" in violation of the Smith Act, and was imprisoned at the Alderson Federal Reformatory for Women. In prison, she petitioned the United Nations to "investigate the manner in which immigrants in the United States are being treated by the United States Government. If we can be denied all rights and incarcerated in concentration camps, then trade unionists are next; then the Negro people, the Jewish people, all foreign born, and progressives who love peace and cherish freedom will face bestiality and torment of fascism. Our fate is the fate of American democracy. Our fight is the fight of all opponents of fascist barbarism, of all who abhor war and desire peace."

Against the backdrop of McCarthyism, Claudia Jones was deported to Britain shortly after her release from Alderson, much to the relief of the colonial government in Trinidad.

In 1956, she arrived in London where she continued the revolutionary struggle, becoming part of the British Communist Party. In 1958 she founded and edited the West Indian Gazette (and Afro-Asian Caribbean News), the first Black newspaper in Britain, declaring that she was "... determined to continue this journal as a non-party peoples' organization, supporting struggles all over the world, against imperialism, against racism and fascism, for friendship among all peoples based on freedom, equality and human dignity." The struggle for world peace took her to the USSR, Japan, and China.

She organized many events and was actively involved in many campaigns in the black community. In 1958, racial violence, similar to the racial conflict happening in the American South, Rhodesia, and South Africa at the time, rocked Britain in the Notting Hill district of London. Claudia Jones was a member of the Committee, which was organized to develop an agenda to present the race problem to the government.

In 1959, she organized the first of six indoor Carnivals under the slogan "A people's art is the genesis of their freedom." This first Mardi Gras celebration was in direct response to the Notting Hill riots as it was designed "to present West Indian talent to the public, which at that time could not see Caribbean people as anything other than hewers of wood and drawers of water. " Unfortunately, Jones did not live to see her creation evolve into the Notting Hill Carnival, which is regarded as Europe's largest street festival today.

Claudia Jones, who spent her life campaigning against racist oppression, class hierarchy, and the roles assigned to women, died in London on Christmas Day, 1964. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery in a grave next to Karl Marx.

Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist, Harry Haywood, Lakeview Press, 1978.
Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile, Marika Sherwood, Donald Hinds &, Colin Prescot, Lawrence & Wishart, 2000.
Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent: From the Ancient Egyptian to the Present, Margaret Busby (ed.), Ballantine Books, 1992.
Women, Race & Class, Angela Y. Davis, Random House, 1983.
Search for 'Claudia Jones' on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

BBCi's Historic Figures: Claudia Jones

History Matters' "I Never Met a Black Person Who Was in the Communist Party Because of the Soviet Union:" Jack O'Dell on Fighting Racism in the 1940s

The Notting Hill Carnival's Carnival Roadshow Company