An evening of music, images, history and comment
Friday 6 March 2015, 6–8pm
Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS
Organised by SERTUC Race Relations Committee
Contributors: Judy Richards (invited), Professor Mary Davis, Marika Sherwood and Alex Pascall. Chair: Betty Joseph, NUT
Claudia Jones was a seminal figure in British left politics in the second half of the 20th century. The West Indian Gazette, which she founded in 1958, played an important part in publicising the boycott of South African goods in 1959–60 and the activities of the newly formed Anti-Apartheid Movement. Born in Trinidad, Claudia Jones became a political activist after migrating to the USA. In 1955 she was deported for her communist beliefs and came to Britain. She gave a voice to Britain’s growing black community and was a central figure in the ferment of community politics in the late 1950s and early 1960s. After the Notting Hill race riots in 1958 she helped found the Notting Hill Carnival, which continues to this day. Her tragic and premature death in 1964 robbed Britain and the world of an uncompromising and creative fighter against racism and injustice everywhere.