Claudia Jones may have become better known in recent times, but her life’s story is shrouded in too much misinformation. History consultant Kwaku sets the record straight. As we mark African History Month, expect Claudia Jones be become better known this year. She’s the subject of a chapter entitled ‘Black British Activism In Notting Hill’, which is in ‘Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History: Migrants in Britain c 800-Present’, published at the start of the new school term for students taking GCSE History. This month sees the republication of ‘Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile’ by Marika Sherwood et al, twenty-one years after it was first published. She may well be even much more known in the immediate future, as I’ve read 2020 news reports that say there is a film in the works, to be directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, the director of the superb docudrama ‘Hero: Inspired By The Extraordinary Life And Times Of Mr. Ulric Cross’. The film based on Claudia’s life is simply called ‘Claudia’. More on that later. It’s worth pointing out that even books on Claudia written by academics have their share of mistakes, whilst many articles in magazines and on the internet are riddled with the prevalent, same-old, same-old ahistorical narratives. So let’s see how many of these ahistorical narratives I can disabuse your minds of. Claudia Jones was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad on February 21 1915. However, her father and mother did not name her Claudia
BY KWAKU
Claudia Jones: The Myth Buster
“Nearly fifty-seven years after her lonely death in a north London flat, let’s put the mighty warrior that was Claudia Jones in a rightful and correct context, as we tell her British African history.” Jones. She was named Claude Vera, and her surname was Cumberbatch. She did not travel to New York with her parents – she met them there two years after they had emigrated to the US. Claudia arrived in New York on February 9 1924, aged almost nine years old. She travelled with her sisters Sylvia, Meta, Irene and Lindsay, plus an aunt. Although she is very much associated with Notting Hill, Claudia neither lived in or near Notting Hill. However, taking Notting Hill to also mean the surrounding environs, such as Ladbroke Grove, it’s fair to say that she pounded its streets many times. Her friend and comrade Amy Ashwood Garvey lived at 1 Bassett Street, where Claudia would no doubt have visited Amy on either a personal visit, or more likely to discuss some issue to do with either the local area or some form of mistreatment or discrimination experienced by Africans, particularly those from the Caribbean, in the late-1950s to the early 1960s. Indeed, Claudia was one of the leaders of the London March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom “solidarity march”, which started its journey to the American embassy from Ladbroke Grove. This march took place
on August 31 1963, which was three days after the momentous march in Washington. Now, let’s blow one of the most deeply-entrenched myths – Claudia never organised a carnival in Notting Hill, neither did she start the Notting Hill Carnival nor was her, or strictly speaking the West Indian Gazette’s, Caribbean Carnival a precursor to Notting Hill Carnival (NHC).
‘Certainly the Royal Mail’s 2008 issue of the Women of Distinction postage stamps got it right, when she was described simply as Civil Rights Activist.’ The West Indian Gazette’s Caribbean Carnival was held annually between 1959 and 1964 across different London locations, of which none was remotely close to Notting Hill. By the way, it was not the first “Caribbean Carnival” in London, and neither did it have anything to do with the Antiguan carpenter Kelso Cochrane, who was murdered in Notting Hill more than three months after the inaugural event on January 30 1959. Considering NHC started in 1966, and Claudia died on December 25 1964, and that
