Claudia Jones was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1915. When she was eight years old she moved to Harlem, New York. Her mother died five years later. She won the Theodore Roosevelt Award for Good Citizenship at her Junior High School. Due to her poor living conditions she was struck with tuberculosis in 1932. This was a condition that damaged her lungs, and she was plagued by it for the rest of her life.

Claudia Jones lived in New York for almost 30 years, becoming and was involved in local communist politics. By 1948 she had been elected to the National Committee of the American Communist Party and become the editor of the column ‘Negro Affairs’ for the party’s paper The Daily Worker.

She became an experienced public speaker on human and civil rights, giving speeches to large crowds. However, her activities soon began to attract the attention of the authorities. This was at a time when the United States was very anti-communist. Claudia Jones was arrested and sent to prisoned four times by the US Government. In 1955 she was deported and given asylum in England.

She left the United States at the beginning of the civil rights movement can became involved in politics in Britain. In 1958, Claudia Jones launched the West Indian Gazette in London as part of her campaign for equal opportunities for African and Caribbean people. She became one of the most charismatic black leaders of her day.

Claudia Jones is best known in Britain as ‘the mother of the Notting Hill Carnival’. She understood how culture could be used to express political views, and felt that the spirit of carnival would be the best way to stop racism. London’s first carnival took place in 1959 and was organised to try and prevent racism.

Even though she had incredible energy, she suffered a lifetime of illness. Claudia Jones died on Christmas Eve 1964 aged 49, due to a heart condition and tuberculosis. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London, next to Karl Marx.