Jessica Elleisse Huntley (née Carroll; 23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013) was an African-Guyanese-British woman, a political reformer, prominent race equality campaigner, the pioneering British publisher of black and Asian literature, and a women's and community rights activist. She is notable as the founder in 1969 of
Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications
Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (BLP) is a radical London-based publishing company founded by Guyanese activists Jessica Huntley (23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013)Margaret Busby"Jessica Huntley obituary" ''The Guardian'', 27 October 2013. and ...
in London.
Early life
She was born in Bagotstown, British Guiana (now Guyana) on 23 February 1927 (on which day the 18th-century
Berbice slave uprising
The Berbice slave uprising was a slave revolt in Guyana that began on 23 February 1763Cleve McD. Scott"Berbice Slave Revolt (1763)" in Junius P. Rodriguez, ''Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion'', Vol. 1, Westport, Ct: Greenwood Press, 2 ...
is commemorated). She was the only daughter and youngest of four children of James Carroll and his wife, Hectorine Carroll (nee Esbrand).
Jessica was three years old when her father died, and her mother struggled financially to raise her children, nevertheless instilling the values of independence, discipline, justice and loyalty that informed Jessica's life. Unable to finish high school on the family's meagre finances, Jessica attended evening classes in shorthand and typing. With the hope of a clerical position becoming available, she worked in a garment factory, where she took up the cause of exploited female workers.
In 1950, she married Eric Huntley, and in the following two years gave birth to their first two children.
Career
In January 1950, Jessica Huntley co-founded the first national government of British Guiana, elected through mass suffrage, alongside Leaders
Cheddi Jagan
Cheddi Berret Jagan (22 March 1918 – 6 March 1997) was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 199 ...
,
Janet Jagan
Janet Rosenberg Jagan (October 20, 1920 – March 28, 2009) was a U.S.-born Guyanese politician who served as the President of Guyana, serving from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She was the first female President of Guyana. She previou ...
, Eric Huntley,
Eusi Kwayana
Eusi Kwayana, formerly Sydney King (born 4 April 1925), is a Guyanese politician. A cabinet minister in the People's Progressive Party (PPP) government of 1953, he was detained by the British Army in 1954. Later he left the PPP to form ASCRIA (A ...
and other members of the People's Progressive Party. In May 1953, Jessica Huntley co-founded in then British Guiana the Women's Progressive Organization to focus on women's rights as part of the People's Progressive Party's (PPP) independence struggle.
She was appointed as the organizing secretary of the PPP, and stood as a candidate in the general election, but was not elected. She moved to the UK in April 1958, following her husband, who had moved there in 1957 to look for work.
Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications
In 1969, Huntley co-founded, with her husband Eric Huntley, the London-based publishing company
Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications
Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (BLP) is a radical London-based publishing company founded by Guyanese activists Jessica Huntley (23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013)Margaret Busby"Jessica Huntley obituary" ''The Guardian'', 27 October 2013. and ...
(BLP), which was named in honour of two heroes of the Caribbean resistance,
Toussaint L'Ouverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
and
Paul Bogle
Paul Bogle (1822– 24 October 1865)Dugdale-Pointon, T. Military History Encyclopedia good on the Web, 22 September 2008. was a Jamaican Baptist deacon and activist. He is a National Hero of Jamaica. He was a leader of the 1865 Morant Bay pr ...
. Beginning with ''The Groundings With My Brothers'', by Guyanese historian and scholar
Walter Rodney
Walter Anthony Rodney (23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include '' How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgeto ...
, BLP went on to publish books by an expanding range of authors, including Andrew Salkey,
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002 he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His p ...
,
Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay FRSL (born 21 May 1967) is a British author and broadcaster. Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has been chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trus ...
and
Valerie Bloom
Valerie Bloom MBE (born 1956)Jeffrey Wainwright''Poetry: The Basics''(2004), 2nd edition, Routledge, 2011, p. 21. is a Jamaican-born poet and a novelist based in the UK.
A blue plaque unveiled in October 2018 outside the Huntleys' West Ealing home commemorates their work in the founding of Bogle-L'Ouverture."Blue plaque to mark work of Ealing activist couple" ''Ealing Times'', 28 September 2018.
Other activity
The Bogle-L'Ouverture bookshop, opened by the Huntleys in Ealing in 1975, was one of the first Black bookshops in the UK, renamed as the Walter Rodney Bookshop following Rodney's assassination in 1980, and was a central hub for community action and creativity.
Huntley was instrumental in the establishment of the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, held between 1982 and 1995, of which she was joint director with
John La Rose
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
until 1984.
Among other activism, in the 1980s Huntley was a co-founder with Margaret Busby and others of Greater Access to Publishing (GAP), a voluntary group campaigning for greater diversity within the mainstream publishing industry.
Personal life
In 1948, she first met
Eric Huntley
Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (BLP) is a radical London-based publishing company founded by Guyanese activists Jessica Huntley (23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013) Margaret Busby"Jessica Huntley obituary" ''The Guardian'', 27 October 2013. an ...
(born 1929), who was at the time a postal worker and trade union activist. They married on 9 December 1950 and lived for a period in the village of
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
) in 1951, and Chauncey in 1952.
Jessica Huntley died On 13 October 2013 at
Ealing Hospital
Ealing Hospital is a district general NHS hospital, part of London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, located in the Southall district of the London Borough of Ealing, West London, England. It lies on the south side of the Uxbridge ...
. She is survived by her husband, Eric, and their son Chauncey and daughter Accabre (named after one of the rebels in the Berbice slave uprising). Their son Karl died two years earlier, also on 13 October. Hundreds of people went to her funeral at
Southall
Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
's Christ the Redeemer Church. She was buried in
Greenford Park Cemetery
Greenford () is a suburb in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, England, lying west from Charing Cross. It has a population of 46,787 inhabitants, or 62,126 with the inclusion of Perivale.
Greenford is served by Greenford Station (L ...
.
Archives and legacy
In 2005, papers relating to the business of Bogle-L'Ouverture, together with documents concerning the personal, campaigning and educational initiatives of Jessica and Eric Huntley from 1952 to 2011, were deposited at
London Metropolitan Archives
The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London: it is the largest county record office in the United Kingdom. It was established under its pr ...
(LMA).
Since 2006, the Huntley Archives at LMA have inspired an annual conference on themes reflecting different elements of the content of the collection.
A blue plaque, organized by the
Nubian Jak Community Trust
Nubian Jak Community Trust (NJCT) is a commemorative plaque and sculpture scheme founded by Jak Beula that highlights the historic contributions of Black and minority ethnic people in Britain. The first NJCT heritage plaque, honouring Bob Marley, ...
John La Rose
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
Pambazuka News
''Pambazuka News'' is an open access, Pan-African e-mail and online electronic newsletter. It is published weekly in English, Portuguese and French by the not-for-profit organisation Fahamu. The word ''Pambazuka'' means "dawn" or "arise" in Kiswa ...