Claudia Jones (1915-1964) was a revolutionary, intersectional writer, journalist and communist activist who fought for the liberation of Black women and the rights of all working-class people.
Claudia Jones (1915-1964) was a revolutionary, intersectional writer, journalist and communist activist who fought for the liberation of Black women and the rights of all working-class people.
While motherhood can take many forms, to mother is to usher forth new generations through care, work and imagination. For the entire month of December, we’re celebrating mothers — including those who raised children who went on to lead the civil rights movement and school desegregation efforts, such as Alberta King and Louise Little, as well as mothers of movements like Lorena Borjas who started the Latinx trans movement. All of the women featured this month were dedicated to the survival of children in their work and to imagining better futures for the next generation.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I'm Anna Malaika Tubbs, the author of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK, Malcom X and James Baldwin Shaped A Nation. My work focuses on motherhood, through the lens of feminism, intersectionality, and inclusivity, and I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about mothers: women who ushered forth new generations and new futures through their care, work, and imagination.
Today we’re talking about a revolutionary writer, journalist and communist activist. Her advocacy was always intersectional. She fought for the inclusion and liberation of Black women and the rights of all working-class people. She left a legacy of celebrating of Caribbean culture, as the “Mother of Notting Hill Carnival.”
Let’s talk about Claudia Jones.
Claudia was born on February 21, 1915 in Trinidad. When Claudia was eight years old, her family moved to Harlem, New York.
Her family came to the United States hoping to find a free and prosperous place to raise their children. Instead, they encountered the stark reality of working class exploitation and Jim Crow oppression.
Claudia’s time in public school was a never-ending series of aggressions. Teachers asked her and other Black students if they wanted to make an extra dollar doing domestic work for them. White students would ask her for answers to the homework, only to ignore her once they left school grounds.
Claudia began to question the root of segregation and poverty. How it was that the country she lived in espoused the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness for all, when the conditions of her daily life so clearly contradicted that motto?.
Claudia’s mother, Sybil, died when Claudia was just twelve. She’d collapsed at her machine in a garment shop, after years of constant hard work.
Claudia’s father was left to raise four daughters alone. He took a job as a superintendent at a building in Harlem to support his family. Living conditions were dismal, and when she was 17, Claudia contracted tuberculosis . She spent the next year recovering in a sanatorium in Harlem. Alone, he read books and learned about the fight for Black and working class liberation and equality. That time radicalized Claudia’s politics– but her health never fully recovered.
After a string of low-paying retail and factory jobs, Claudia started working at a Black nationalist newspaper in 1935 after she left. On her way home through Harlem, she would stop on 125th St. and listen to the soapbox orators. Speakers from the Communist party stood out to her in particular:they spoke in defense of Black lives world-wide. They connected the horrors of systemic American racism and the working class struggle with the rise of fascist imperialism abroad.
In 1936, Claudia joined the Communist Party USA. She became a skilled writer and organizer, as well as the only Black woman on the Party’s central committee.
Claudia wrote about those who were most familiar to her: Black, working class, women. Her feminism was staunchly intersectional– nearly forty years before that name was officially coined. She campaigned for women’s equality based on the needs of the working class woman – of the mother, the housewife, and the family. Her framework was concerned with the connections between race, class, gender, and anti-imperialism. to
But as Claudia well knew, the 1950s were a dangerous time to be a Communist in the US. Claudia was arrested multiple times during the McCarthy era anti-communist hunts. Her public comments against the atomic arms race and American containment policy led to her arrest, trial, conviction, and imprisonment. She was finally deported to England in 1955.
In England, Claudia continued to write, organize, and lead a political life as an influential Black communist. She became editor of the West Indian Gazette, a one-page flier that offered support for political and cultural organizing e.
London, where Claudia lived, wasn’t too different from the US– tensions over race, immigration, class, and citizenship were boiling over. In the summer of 1958, hostility turned into five days of riots in the Notting Hill area.
Claudia witnessed the violence. She wished to uplift her Black neighbors by creating a festival to celebrate their West Indian heritage in the aftermath of the violence inflicted on the neighborhood. She created it with a slogan in mind: “a people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.”
The first iteration took place at a local town hall and was called “Claudia’s Caribbean Carnival.” We now know it as the Notting Hill Carnival, a huge event that attracts millions of people to West London every year to celebrate Afro-Caribbean music and culture.
Claudia continued to watch the carnival grow each year– but she still suffered from poor health the rest of her life.
She passed away in 1964. Her final resting place is in London’s Highgate Cemetery– buried just to the left of Karl Marx.
All month, we’re talking about mothers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow!