Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment: Beyond Containment

Claudia Jones is one of my personal heroines. I spent my formative political years in Claudia Jones's London stamping ground of Notting Hill - it was the classic centre of post-war black activism in Britain. Most West Indian immigrants in the 1950s came by boat to Southampton and the train from there took them into Paddington. Hence the large black community in that part of West London. So I know people who had worked with Claudia Jones and spoke of her with awe. She founded two of Black Britain's most important institutions; the first black newspaper, the West Indian Gazette and she was also one of the founding organizers of the Notting Hill Carnival.Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment transcends the silencing and erasure historically accorded women of achievement: it makes accessible and brings to wider attention the words of an often overlooked twentieth-century political and cultural activist, who tirelessly campaigned, wrote, spoke out, organized, edited and published autobiographical writings, poetry, essays on subjects close to her political heart - human rights, peace, struggles related to gender, race and class - this is a collection that unites the many facets of a woman whose identities as a radical thinker and as a black woman are not in conflict.
This anthology of selected writings from Claudia Jones, the important Black nationalist and communist activist in the forefront of racial and social justice movements in the US and Britain in the mid-twentieth century, showcases her influential role in the development of modern principles of women's rights, anti-racist activism and immigrants' issues. The volume includes autobiographical selections, formal essays, and poetry and includes introductory sections by Boyce Davies, a professor of Africana studies at Cornell University. Distributed in the US by Lynne Rienner Publishers. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)