Today’s Google Doodle remembers Claudia Jones - here’s her story

Today’s (14 October) Google Doodle celebrates Claudia Jones.

A Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist, Jones is perhaps best remembered for founding the UK’s first major black newspaper, and her work in laying the groundwork for the now world famous Notting Hill carnival.

Here is everything you need to know about the journalist and activist.

Who was Claudia Jones?

Jones was born Claudia Vera Cumberbatch on 21 February 1915 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, though at eight years of age she and her family emigrated to New York City’s Harlem.

Her potential for activism and philanthropy were quickly realised when she won the Theodore Roosevelt Award for Good Citizenship at her junior high school.

She graduated high school - though as immigrants, her family were too poor to attend the graduation ceremony - and Jones began working in a laundry, while writing a column called Claudia Comments for a Harlem journal on the side.

In 1936, she joined the Young Communist League USA and, passionate about writing, contributed to and led a variety of communist publications as a young adult.

In 1937 she became a member of the editorial staff of the Daily Worker, rising by 1938 to become editor of the Weekly Review. When the Young Communist League became American Youth for Democracy during World War II, Jones became editor of its monthly journal, Spotlight.

After the war, Jones became executive secretary of the Women's National Commission, secretary for the Women's Commission of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and in 1952 took the same position at the National Peace Council.

Why did she come to the UK?

Jones was an outspoken advocate of civil rights, gender equality, and decolonisation, and used her journalism to spread her message, often speaking at public gatherings to work towards the liberation of black women from discrimination faced through classism, racism and sexism.