Marion Patrick Jones – help set up the UK civil rights movement CARD
- Maya Bello-Taylor
- Jul 12
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Marion Patrick Jones (also known by her married names Marion Glean and later Marion O'Callaghan) was born in 1934 in the middle-class suburb of Woodbrook in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Woodbrook was a diverse, multi-racial area, home to families with education or skilled trades, many of whom aspired to emulate British social norms.
Her father, Patrick Jones, was of Chinese and mixed African-European heritage, was a leading Trinidadian trade unionist, as well as a renowned calypsonian and Carnival bandleader. He was known as “Cromwell, the Lord Protector,” and is credited with singing the first political calypso song in 1920.
Like many aspirational families in Woodbrook, Marion was sent to a reputable Christian school. She attended St Joseph’s Convent School – an exclusive Roman Catholic girls’ school run by Irish nuns - where she won the Girls’ Open Island Scholarship in 1950. She ranked third among all candidates across the West Indies and became one of the first two women admitted to the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in St Augustine (now part of the University of the West Indies).
After graduation, she travelled to New York City to pursue further studies, earning a diploma in Library Science. To support her education, she worked in a ceramics factory painting pottery and became involved in labour organising, helping to establish a trade union with Manny Spiro.
Upon returning to Trinidad, she qualified as a chartered librarian and served as Senior Librarian at the Carnegie Library in San Fernando. During this time, she also joined the Friends of Quakers movement and did welfare work for the blind.
In 1962, she moved to Britain to continue her education, earning a BSc degree from the University of London. She later completed postgraduate studies in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics, writing her thesis on a subject close to her heart - the Chinese community in Trinidad. While studying for her master’s, she worked as a secretary to the Quaker International Affairs Centre in London.
Marion (known as Marion Glean while residing in Britain) was a committed pacifist and Quaker. She played a prominent role in the Black community and contributed to key debates on race and post-colonial politics. In the run-up to the 1964 UK general election, she was involved in producing a series of statements on race, published in Peace News by editor Theodore Roszak.
As Kalbir Shukra notes in The Changing Pattern of Black Politics in Britain (1998):
“After the election, Glean brought together Alan Lovell and Michael Randle – pacifists and former members of the Committee of 100 - with other friends who had written for Peace News, including Ranjana Ash (an active member of the Movement for Colonial Freedom), Trinidadian historian and writer C. L. R. James, and Barry Reckord (Caribbean playwright and actor).”
Initially, they formed a debating group called Multi-Racial Britain, but Martin Luther King’s visit to London in December 1964 inspired them to expand their efforts. They used King’s presence and influence to engage a broader audience.
That year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for civil rights in the United States. Before travelling to Norway to accept the award, he visited the UK to preach at St Paul’s Cathedral and meet civil rights activists. US Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin, responsible for organising King’s visit to the UK, was put in contact with Glean to help coordinate the tour. Together, they arranged for King to meet local immigrant activists and promote anti-discrimination legislation in Britain.
On Monday 7th December King met with activists at Hilton Hotel in London for hour and a half. Those present included Dr David Pitt and representatives from: London Region of Standing Conference of West Indian Organisations, West Indian Student Union, the British Caribbean Association, Anti-Apartheid, the National Federation of Pakistan Association, Council of African Organisations, Southall Indian Workers Association, the CND, the Committee of 100 and the Movement for Colonial Freedom.
An ad hoc committee was formed at this meeting, serving as a “nucleus for an umbrella organisation to coordinate the anti-discrimination efforts of organisations in the immigrant communities.” This group formally adopted the name Campaign for Racial Discrimination (CARD) at a follow-up meeting on the 10th January 1965.
In The Guardian newspaper, published on 12th December 1964, Glean described the movement as “not a coloured front vis-à-vis the rest.” Although most CARD members were Black (a political term used at the time to describe people of colour from the Commonwealth), Dr David Pitt served as chair. White liberals also came to play a significant role in CARD’s subsequent campaigns. For four years, it was an effective – though later controversially moderate – influence behind Harold Wilson’s Labour government and its promotion of American-style civil rights and anti-discrimination legislation.
By 1965, Marion had divorced and remarried, was now known as Marion O’Callaghan, and was living and working in Paris. She worked as Director of Social Science Programmes for UNESCO, overseeing their anti-apartheid programme from 1965 to 1990.
During this time, she began her writing career, publishing two novels in the 1970s under her maiden name, Marion Patrick Jones. Her first novel, Pan Beat (1973), explored steelband culture and the role of women in its development. Her second, J’Ouvert Morning (1976), examined middle-class struggles in a society with a colonial legacy.
Lloyd W. Brown commented on her work: "In spite of the soap operatic quality of her narrative materials, Jones's novels succeed as riveting documents of a troubled society in a state of transition. ...despite Jones's melodramatic tendencies, the characters are vividly drawn and the language especially in J'Ouvert Morning - is original and invigorating." While Jennifer Rahim said, “The author's invaluable contribution to the region's literature is her sensitive analysis of the Trinidadian urban middle class, as it strives to escape poverty and anonymity.”
Writing by Jones appears in such collections as Her True-True Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing from the Caribbean (eds Pamela Mordecai and Betty Wilson, 1989), Caribbean Women Writers: Essays from the First International Conference (ed. Selwyn R Cudjoe, 1990), and Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent (ed. Margaret Busby, 1992).
After retiring from UNESCO in 1990, she returned to live Trinidad with her husband Maurice O'Callaghan. There, she continued to write, contributing a weekly commentary column for the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday newspaper.
Marion O’Callaghan died aged 84 at her home in Port of Spain on 2 March 2016.
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