Born Trinidad. Moved to New York where she became a Communist. Caught up in the McCarthy trials she was imprisoned and then extradited to Britain in December 1955. Became a community organiser after the Notting Hill race riots in 1958 and, in January 1959, as the editor of the black newspaper The West Indian Gazette, she initiated an indoor annual event which later become the Notting Hill Carnival.
Died at home, Lisburne Road, Gospel Oak. Buried Highgate Cemetery, beside Karl Marx in what was for a long time an unmarked grave but then "a group of youngsters from the Afro Caribbean Organisation in King’s Cross ... raised money to buy a headstone in 1984." From the .
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them