Black History Now
Jack O'Dell (1923-2019): Black Activist & Civil Rights Organizer
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.
.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280 "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")
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
Archives
New York Public Library: Schomburg
https://archives.nypl.org/scm/21106
Documentary film
The issue of Jack O'Dell
https://vimeo.com/251717171
His Voice
On SNYC (Southern Negro Youth Congress)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfzfhy8y830
On leaving the CPUSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5eVo9Ns-uY&list=RDCMUC2xX2FI6s4i9xz3t9qjayhg&start_radio=1&rv=v5eVo9Ns-uY&t=307
On Martin Luther King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slxGTkKtdxo
On leaving the movement of Martin Luther King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBBb7m983Vo
Confronting Racial Capitalism
https://pcp.gc.cuny.edu/2014/11/video-confronting-racial-capitalism-jack-odell-barbara-ransby-nikhil-pal-singh-christina-heatherton/
About Him
Conference
https://labor.washington.edu/odell
The Legacy of Jack O'Dell in the Black Freedom Movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEBdIqWNlqg
Monthly Review
https://monthlyreview.org/2011/05/01/the-jack-odell-story/
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