George Padmore (ca. 1902-1959) was a Trinidadian leftist political activist and author as well as a noted pan-Africanist ideologue.

George Padmore, whose given name was Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was educated through secondary school in Trinidad. In 1924 he went to the United States, where he studied at Columbia University, Fisk University, New York University Law School, and Howard University. He had been at first attracted to the study of medicine but then developed an interest in law. In 1927 he joined the Communist party, and his political involvement diverted him from completing his law degree. In 1928, as part of his Communist party activities, Padmore began editing the Negro Champion, later called the Liberator, in Harlem.

In 1929 Padmore was summoned to the U.S.S.R., where he became the head of the Negro Bureau of the Red International of Labor Unions. In 1931 he was sent to Germany to head...