Jessica Huntley's Pan-African Life: The Decolonizing Work of a Radical Black Activist

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A powerful biography that presents analysis of a black working-class woman who rose from a tenement slum in intensely racialized British Guiana to become a leading anti-colonialism, workers rights and womens liberation activist in Britain. Featuring a Foreword by Margaret Busby, Publisher, Editor and Chair of the Booker Prize, Jessica Huntley's Pan-African Life celebrates Huntley's importance as a leading figure in the Windrush-era resistance to the multiple, racialized injustices faced by black settlers, children and communities in Britain. Claudia Tomlinson details how Huntley became the elder stateswoman of radical black activism of her era through participation in decolonization movements and actions such as the Black Parents Movement and the International Bookfair of Radical Black and Third World Books, as well as her foundational role at Bogle LOuverture Publications, the leading black-led, pan-African publishing house and its associated radical bookshop. Based on extensive archival research and over 40 interviews with Huntleys closest family members, associates, comrades, authors, artists and friends, this book affords readers an opportunity to take a long-lensed view of the historical roots of the many contemporary racial injustices re-invigorated in recent debates. Tomlinson re-writes the history of a period and a struggle often told through a master discourse that is male, middle-class and privileged. In so doing, she shows how Jessica Huntleys fight for justice and the rights of all black people in Britain provides a useful lens into UK-based, black literary and cultural expression in the 20th century.

Author Bio

Claudia Tomlinson is Research Associate at the Friends of the Huntley Archives at the London Metropolitan Archives,UK. She is a member of History Matters, a group of concerned black historians and teachers, founded by Professor Hakim Adi, who have joined with others from cultural institutions, charities, governing bodies and societies to discuss concerns about the under-representation of students and teachers of African and Caribbean heritage within the history discipline.