The Mother of Notting Hill Carnival: Claudia Jones

Claudia Jones was a leading figure in London's Caribbean community from 1955 until her death in 1964. She founded The West Indian Gazette, and is known as 'the Mother of the Notting Hill Carnival'.

1. Born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, in 1915. .
2. Became an active member of the American Communist Party when Black issues were still neglected in mainstream politics.
3. Jones was a talented journalist and by the late 1940s she had become the editor of 'Negro Affairs' for the party's paper, The Daily Worker. 
4. She was arrested for her political activities and sentenced to the first of four spells in prison. Jones was deported, refused entry to Trinidad in 1955, and granted asylum in England.
5. There, she helped organise campaigns against the 1962 Immigration Act. 
6. Campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela, and spoke out against racism in the workplace.
7. Claudia Jones became a leader in the emerging Black equal rights movement in London.
8. In 1958, Jones founded the West Indian Gazette, the first newspaper printed in London for the Black community. 
9. Helped launch Notting Hill Carnival as a response to the 1958 riots, when tensions had turned violent as racist mobs attacked local Black residents. Using the West Indian tradition of carnival, the event was intended to create closer relations between all local communities. The first carnival was held in January 1959 in a local hall.
10. Jones died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve 1964, aged just 48. She was buried in Highgate cemetery next to the grave of Karl Marx.

*Read about Claudia.