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Social movements and organizing · Communist Party USA (CPUSA) people 1

Social movements and organizing × Communist Party USA (CPUSA) ×

Claudia Jones

Claudia Jones
Social movements and organizing Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago 1915–1964 ○ Heart attack

The Black feminist Marxist who pioneered intersectional analysis, and created the Notting Hill Carnival

"A people's art is the genesis of their freedom" — slogan of the first Caribbean carnival, 1959

Trinidad-born Marxist-feminist theorist. Her 1949 analysis of the triple oppression of race, class and gender is recognised as a forerunner of intersectionality. Deported to Britain, she founded a major Black newspaper and organised the Caribbean carnival that gave rise to Notting Hill Carnival.

Career timeline
  • 1915Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad; family emigrates to Harlem when she is eight
  • 1936Joins the YCL; writer, associate editor, then editor-in-chief of the Weekly Review
  • 1945–1955CPUSA Women's Commission secretary; elected to National Committee (1948); Daily Worker Negro Affairs editor
  • 1949Publishes landmark essay pioneering intersectional analysis within a Marxist framework
  • 1948–1955Four prison terms, Smith Act conviction; deported to Britain in 1955
  • 1958–1964Founds West Indian Gazette; organises first indoor Caribbean carnival (1959)
  • 1964Dies Christmas Eve; buried left of Karl Marx's grave, Highgate Cemetery