The “Single V” Campaign: The Struggle for Nationhood, Citizenship, and Global War in Claudia Jones’ Weekly Review Editorials, 1938-1943

• In Event: Identity and Nation

Abstract

The emergence of the Second World War in the early 1940s witnessed the presence of an important but forgotten voice in media history. A Du Boisian theoretical framework demonstrates how Claudia Jones, a Trinidadian-born journalist, placed “superexploited” voices at the center of a conversation about war and race, class, and gender politics. Employing a historical analysis of Jones’ editorials published in the Weekly Review from 1938-1943, the author argues that she called for a single victory linking Jim Crowism to fascism, critiquing capitalism and colonialism, and promoting transnational solidarity while privileging US global power. Jones’ journalism, therefore, tells a story that considers the lifespan of black thought in the United States by complicating previous literature on the relationship between black struggle and citizenship. It places black intellectuals, activists, and journalists at the heart of national and trans/national conversations about US national interests and its imperialistic projects.

Author

• Cristina Mislan, University of Missouri, Columbia