Jack O'Dell (1923-2019): Black Activist & Civil Rights Organizer

Jack O’Dell testified before the Senate internal security subcommittee in 1956. He was called to respond to questions about whether he was an organizer for the Communist Party, but he declined to answer and called the chairman, Senator James Eastland, a Mississippi Democrat, “an enemy of the Negro people, and an avowed one

Jack O'Dell (1923-2019) was a well-known activist, writer, organizer, Communist Party member (CPUSA) , labor and SCLC organizer and close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. Born in Detroit, O'Dell briefly attended Diliard University in New Orleans. After enlisting in the United State Army during World War II, he joined the National Martime Union. By the late 1950's, he was heavily involved with SCLC and Martin Luther King. Forced to leave SCLC because of his Communist affliations, O'Dell went on to serve as an editor at Freedomways Magazine, chair the Pacifica Foundation radio station group and served as an aide for Operation PUSH and Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 Presidential campaigns.

Bio/Obituary

Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_O%27Dell

New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/us/jack-odell-dead.html

The Nation https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/who-jack-odell/

Stanford University https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/odell-hunter-pitts-jack

Writings

The Black Freedom Movement Writings of Jack O'Dell https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppxfh https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520274549/climbin-jacobs-ladder

Jack O'Dell (1923-2019): Black Activist & Civil Rights Organizer

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