Claudia Cumberbatch also known as Claudia Jones was born on February 21, 1915 in Trinidad. “”Her family migrated to the United States in 1924. Claudia’s mother was a garment worker and due to the effects of harsh working conditions and overwork, she died when Claudia was twelve years old (Noel 2016).
In 1935, at the age of 20 she became involved in the campaign to free the Scottsboro Boys from being lynched. The nine African American boys accused of raping two white women in Alabama USA. Shortly after she joined The Communist Party and Young Communist League USA. She held various positions in the Party like Secretary of the Young Communist League, Chair of the National Council Member, Secretary of the Women’s Commission and Communist Party USA. She also became a columnist and editor of a youth paper. As a result of her political activities Claudia Jones was jailed twice and subsequently deported in 1955 to England (Noel 2016).
Her life in London is where she started making waves for Caribbean community. In London, Claudia Jones became a leader in the emerging Black equal rights movement. Post-war migration from the Caribbean had caused tensions in the City. Many West Indians suffered from prejudice in housing and employment. “At the time, there was no legislation making it illegal to discriminate on the ground of colour (Timothy 2016). In 1958, Claudia Jones founded the “West Indian Gazette” and the Afro-Asian “Caribbean Newspaper”, the first newspaper printed in London for the Black community. It provided a forum for discussion of civil rights as well as reporting news that was overlooked by the mainstream media. Claudia worked as editor on the paper. From this we can see how passionate Claudia Jones was to the people of the Caribbean.
The annual Notting Hill Carnival. it started off with a pageant where not only Caribbean people but Black people as well could come and showcase their artistic talent. She helped launch the event as a response to the 1958 riots, “when tensions had turned violent as racist mobs murdered Kelso Cochrane (Springer 2016). It was seen a counter. Using the West Indian tradition of carnival, the event was intended to create closer relations between all local communities to make the non-black community get a glance of the black community in showing peace and unity . The first carnival was held in January 1959 in a local hall and .
In the early 1960s, despite failing health, Jones helped organise campaigns against the 1962 Immigration Act. This had made 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. She died 1964 at age 48.
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