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Life and times of Claudia Jones: In her own words
February 25, 2021
1:43 PM CDT
By Claudia Jones
Claudia Jones, then the secretary of the Women's Commission of the Communist Party USA, is pictured at the party's national office in New York City, Jan. 22, 1948. | People's World Archives
Claudia Jones (1915–1964), an Afro-Caribbean woman born in Port of Spain, British West Indies (Trinidad), was a Communist activist in the U.S., holding several responsible positions within the Communist Party and for its publications until her deportation in 1955 to Great Britain. There, based in London, she played a leading role in the West Indian community, editing the left-wing West Indian Gazette, and founding (in 1959) the Caribbean Carnival, a cultural event now attracting some two million people each year. Below is an excerpt from a letter Jones wrote to then-CPUSA National Chair William Z. Foster, dated Dec. 6, 1955, the eve of her deportation. The letter is part of a small file of material donated to New York University’s Tamiment Library by Howard “Stretch” Johnson, an African-American Communist, which also contains a letter (London, April 21, 1956) from Jones to Johnson, her friend and former lover. People’s World is honored to publish a brief autobiographical glimpse of the life of this extraordinary woman.