Cyril Lionel Robert James, who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist and socialist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts. His work is a staple of subaltern studies, and he figures as a pioneering and influential voice in postcolonial literature.
Background
James was born on January 4, 1901, in Caroni, Trinidad, to Robert Alexander James, a schoolteacher and principal, and Ida Elizabeth James. Although the family depended solely on the father's salary and lacked economic resources, the father's job did give them professional standing in the community. James, one of three children, was raised in an extended family that included his grandmother, aunts, and cousins. His parents were strict disciplinarians who instilled in him the values of learning and respect and made clear to James that they expected that he would succeed in life.
James, known as Nello to his family and friends, was tutored by his father when he was a child and attended the local school in the neighboring town of North Trace, where his dad was one of his teachers. His mother was a voracious reader who encouraged James to read and introduced him to such classic writers as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, and the Bronte sisters during his childhood.
Education
By the age of eight, James' father recognized his son's superb intellectual skills. He tutored him for one of the prestigious Island Scholarships" offered by the government to attend the elite Queens Royal College in Trinidad. James passed the required examinations and entered Queens Royal College in 1911. While there, he developed an interest in writing and in sports developing a lifelong passion for cricket; he later became a historian and critic of the sport. James also studied language and was proficient in French, Latin, and classical Greek. The school emphasized European values and minimized or ignored Caribbean history and life.
Career
After graduating in 1918, James worked as a schoolteacher in Trinidad. He worked at many schools including Queens Royal College. He also tutored private students in his spare time. One of these students was Eric Williams, future prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. During this period, James continued his interest in literature and decided to become a writer. His parents opposed the idea on the grounds that it did not allow for a prosperous life. Nevertheless, he began publishing short stories and essays in the literary journals of the time such as The Beacon. One of his first significant literary works was the short story La Divina Pastora" (The Divine Pastor), published in The Saturday Evening Review in 1927. Much of his early work focused on the lives and problems of the poor and on the local Trinidadian landscape but lacked the political focus that he developed later in life.
James wrote the novel Minty Alley in 1928, which was published in London in 1936 and was considered somewhat superficial. His first substantive political work was The Life of Captain Cipriani: An Account of the British Government in the West Indies in 1932. It profiled the life of Arthur Andrew Cipriani, a soldier, labor leader, and politician who was a defender of the rights of the poor and the working class in Trinidad. The book made a serious attempt to discuss issues affecting poor workers in Trinidad, criticizing the British colonial government and holding it accountable for the oppression of poor people in the West Indies.
Despite the fact that James' literary career was growing and he was being recognized as a promising writer in Trinidad, James moved to Great Britain in 1932. James was fascinated with tire popular philosophy of Marxism and began to study it. He saw a link between the philosophical postulates of Marxism, historical determinism, and the different social phenomena that he had observed in the Caribbean. He secured a job as a cricket correspondent for the Manchester Guardian where he worked from 1932 to 1938 while continuing his studying of Marxism. He joined the Independent Political Party and edited the journal Fight! He also wrote about the political philosophy of Russian leader Leon Trotsky.
Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s James faced problems with American immigration authorities, who accused him of staying illegally in the country.
The real reasons for pursuing James were his political views; he was seen as a communist. In 1953, he was arrested and imprisoned at Ellis Island and was later deported to England. His book Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and The World We Live In (1953) was written during this period. The book provides an interesting interpretation and analysis of Melville s Moby-Dick within the context of socialist ideology and Marxist theoretical constructs.
The British political landscape had changed considerably since the end of the war. The general appeal of Marxism and Trotsky's ideas had diminished and true socialism had vanished. Instead, James found himself attracted to the political fervor of his fellow West Indians who were advocating for the independence of the Caribbean.
In 1956, Eric Williams, James's former student, established the People's National Movement (PNM) in Trinidad. His party won the elections that same year and Williams became chief minister of the island. Trinidad joined the Federation of tire West Indies in 1958. Williams invited James to return to Trinidad in 1958, and he accepted. After his arrival, he joined the PNM and began to write political commentaries supporting the new government in the printed media. He also repie- sented Trinidad in the Federal Labor Party at the Federation of the West Indies.
During his years in England, James met many prominent African intellectuals and learned about a political movement known as Pan-Africanism, which advocated the return of blacks to Africa. Promoters of this philosophy believed that Western civilization had originated in Africa, but that through a process of oppression and exploitation Greece and Rome had gained control of Western thought. Pan-Africanists believed that if blacks were to gain equality, they needed to develop social, political, and economic institutions of their own, and so encouraged people to move to Africa. James empathized with Pan-Africanists and saw a link between their message and his Marxist doctrines.
James became a central fixture of radical political circles and impressed people with his deep knowledge of Marxism and the dynamics of oppressed people in Africa, America, and the West Indies. While he was extremely busy publishing political pieces in journals and newspapers of the time, he also remained committed to literature. His most important publications of the times were the play Toussaint L'Overture (1936), World Revolution, 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International (1937), and The Black Jacobins: Toussant L'Overture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938). In these works he tried to demonstrate that Marxist philosophies and precepts could be applied to the circumstances of Africa and Caribbean societies. Class struggles, imperialism, and exploitation are common elements in his works of the time, and by 1938 James had become a central figure in British literary and political circles.
In 1938, James visited the United States to spread the doctrines of Leon Trotsky. His trip was partially sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), which intended to have James lecture throughout the United States. In the American south, he witnessed the terrible racial inequities then prevalent. While class and labor exploitation continued to be important issues, the painful exploitation of black Americans and racial inequalities also became an important issue for him. After the lectures concluded, James stayed in New York, where he wrote for the journals New International and Socialist Appeal. He was against World War II and was a constant speaker on behalf of class reforms. He thought that the inequities in the world, which led to wars and to racial oppression, could be solved if the masses took control of governments and the means of production.
Instead of returning to Great Britain, James stayed in the United States, where he became involved with labor unions and wrote a manuscript titled American Civilization, which presented a cultural critique of America from a socialist view-point. James slowly moved away from Trotsky's views on socialism and moved closer to a more mainstream Marxist view.
Interests
Politicians
Arthur Andrew Cipriani
Connections
James married his first wife, Juanita Young, in Trinidad in 1929, but his move three years later to Britain led to their estrangement.
He met his second wife, Constance Webb (1918–2005), an American model, actress and author, after he moved to the US in 1938; she wrote of having first heard him speak in the spring of 1939 at a meeting in California. They married in 1946 and were divorced in 1953, when James was deported to Britain. He and Webb had a son, C. L. R. James, Jr, familiarly known as Nobbie.
In 1956 James married Selma Weinstein (née Deitch), who had been a young member of the Johnson-Forest Tendency; they remained close political colleagues for more than 25 years. She is best known as the founder of the International Wages for Housework Campaign.