Jack O'Dell
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Jack O'Dell (born Hunter Pitts O'Dell, August 11, 1923 – October 31, 2019) was an African-American activist writer and communist, best known for his role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.


Early life

O'Dell was born in Detroit, Michigan, in August 1923. He was raised there by his grandfather, a janitor at a public library, and his grandmother, who was a strict Catholic. O'Dell attended an all-black college, Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, from 1941 until 1943. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Merchant Marines, which functioned as a branch of the military forces for the duration of the conflict. During this time, he joined the National Maritime Union, one of the few racially integrated labor unions in the U.S.


Communist Party USA

During the 1950s, O'Dell was a member of the
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
(CPUSA).


Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement

He worked with Martin Luther King Jr. O'Dell was a director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Because of O'Dell's past involvement with the Communist Party, King received pressure from many liberal leaders, including the Kennedy brothers John and Robert, to distance himself from O'Dell. Taylor Branch, a historian of the Civil Rights Era, remarked that it was ultimately the Kennedy administration that influenced King's decision, not a reflection of King's own feelings towards O'Dell. After conferring with King, O'Dell decided to accept a less prominent post within the movement not to alienate important allies of the Civil Rights struggle, but O'Dell continued to play a decisive role in the SCLC as well as in King's move towards the political left towards the end of his life.


Jesse Jackson

O'Dell worked closely with
Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
as a senior foreign policy advisor to the "Jesse Jackson for President" campaign in 1984. He also worked with Jackson as an international affairs consultant to the
National Rainbow Coalition The National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) is a political party in Kenya. As an alliance, it was in power from 2002 and 2005 when it collapsed due to disagreements between members over a constitutional referendum. Formation In preparation of the 2002 ...
.


Later life and death

O'Dell wrote for ''
Freedomways ''Freedomways'' was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s. It began publishing in 1961 and ceased in 1985. The journal's founders were Louis E. Burnham, Louis Burnham, Edward Strong, W.E.B. ...
'', an African-American political journal, from its beginning in 1961 to its end in 1985. He served as chairman of the board of the Pacifica Foundation, which operates the listener-sponsored Pacifica Radio Network, from 1977 to 1997. He lived with his wife, Jane Power, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In later life he was active in mentoring new generations of political activists—as well as historians of the Civil Rights Movement—in the Pacific Northwest. A documentary film was made about O'Dell called ''The Issue of Mr. O’Dell'' (2018) that was directed and produced by Rami Katz. O'Dell died in October 2019 at the age of 96."O'Dell, Hunter Pitts 'Jack'"
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University.


References


Other resources

*
Kenneth R. Timmerman Kenneth R. Timmerman (born November 4, 1953) is a political writer and conservative activist who was the United States House of Representatives elections, 2012, 2012 Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee for United States House of Re ...
. ''Shakedown: Exposing the real Jesse Jackson'' (2002). Regnery Publishing, Inc. *
Diane McWhorter Rebecca Diane McWhorter is an American journalist, commentator, and author who has written extensively about race and the history of civil rights. She won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize in 2002 for ...
. '' Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution'' (2001). Simon & Schuster. *
Michael Zweig Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...
, ed. ''Jack O'Dell: The Urgency of Now'' (2005). State University of New York, Stony Brook, Department of Economics. *


External links


''Seven Questions: Jack O'Dell and Jane Power''
Retrieved January 28, 2006
Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare
Lesson by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca at the Zinn Education Project (Jack O'Dell is featured in this lesson). {{DEFAULTSORT:Odell, Jack African-American activists Activists for African-American civil rights American anti-racism activists Activists from Detroit African-American non-fiction writers Pacifica Foundation people Members of the Communist Party USA United States Merchant Mariners of World War II African Americans in World War II Military personnel from Detroit 1923 births 2019 deaths African-American Catholics Roman Catholic activists