1958 - Claudia Jones Launches West Indian Gazette in London

On June 1, 1958, Trinidadian-born activist Claudia Jones launched the West Indian Gazette in London, the first major Black British newspaper. At a time of racial hostility, especially after the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, the Gazette offered a platform for Caribbean migrants, anti-racist organizers, and labor activists. It reported on civil rights movements in the U.S., decolonization in Africa, and local British racism—connecting global Black struggles. The paper became the voice of a transatlantic Black left and laid the groundwork for what would become the Notting Hill Carnival. Claudia Jones, a communist, feminist, and former political prisoner in the U.S., helped forge a distinctly Black British political consciousness. June 1 marks not just a media milestone but a defiant act of cultural self-representation and resistance. Her paper remains a cornerstone of diasporic media history.