Live from the Reading Room: Claudia Jones to Eslanda Robeson by Alexsandra Mitchell, Reference Librarian and Archivist, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black CultureOctober 13, 2016

Live from the Reading Room: Correspondence is a podcast series that aims to share interesting and engaging letters written by or to key historical figures from the African Diaspora. 

Each episode highlights a letter from popular collections housed in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.

Today’s letter features correspondence between Trindaindian journalist and activist Claudia Jones (1915-1964) and Civil Rights activist, anthropologist, and author Eslanda Robeson (1895-1965).  

Claudia Jones reading the West Indian Gazette, London, 1960s
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Claudia Jones reading the West Indian Gazette, London, 1960s" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 

 

Today’s correspondence was recited by Carole Boyce Davies, an African Diaspora Studies and Black Feminist scholar who is professor of Africana Studies and English at Cornell University, New York.  She is the author of the landmark and prize winning Left of Karl Max: The Political Life of Black Feminist Claudia Jones and Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject. Carole Boyce Davies and has recently written Caribbean Spaces: Escape Routes From Twilight Zones and a children's book titled Walking, based on a childhood experience in her native country, Trinidad.

 

View all posts by Alexsandra Mitchell