With the birth name of Claudia Cumberbatch, Claudia Jones was born on February 21, 1915 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. She identified herslef as a
Marxist-Leninist Communist as well as pan-Africanist, antiracist, imperialist,
and feminist. She was academically bright
and believed that socialism was the only way to liberate black people and the
multi-racial working class. Jones’ mother died at the age of 37 because she was overworked in her garment
industry job while two of her sisters were domestic workers throughout their
lives. Therefore, she was all too familiar with the subordination black working
class females faced and viewed the emancipation of black working-class women as
her top priority. Jones was an avid writer, and used her leading position in
the Communist Party to address issues affecting black, working class women. One
of her most significant contributions was the essay, “We Seek Full Equality for
Women,” written in 1949. In this essay, she makes distinct black, socialist and
feminist assertions. Using principles of
Marxism-Leninism, she states that Communists fight to win equality for all
women by emancipating them of their stereotypical household duties. She believed
that only women could deal with the problems, needs, and aspirations of other
women. She was arrested due to her activity in the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA). She was incarcerated to Ellis Island, were she was threatened to be deported back to Trinidad. During a hearing from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, she was found in violation of the McCarran Act for being an non US citizen and part of the communist party. She was ordered to be deported on December 21 1950. In 1951 when she was 36 and I prison she suffered her first heart attack and that year convicted of "un-American activities" under the Smith Act. After being sentenced to a year and a day at the Federal Reformatory for Women she was released October 23 1955. She was however refused entry into Trinidad and Tobago due to Major General Sir Hubert Elvin Dance. She was however granted residency in the United Kingdom. She dies on Christmas Eve of 1964 at age 49.