Jack O'Dell (bornHunter Pitts O'Dell, August 11, 1923 – October 31, 2019) was anAfrican-American activist, writer, and communist,[1] best known for his role in thecivil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. During World War II, he was an organizer for the National Maritime Union.[2] He worked for over twenty years on theFreedomways journal, both as editor and contributor. He was forced out of theSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) byMartin Luther King Jr after pressure was brought to bear due to O'Dell's prior membership in theCommunist Party USA.[3]
Hunter "Jack" Pitts O'Dell was born inDetroit, Michigan, on August 11, 1923.[4] As a result of his parents' divorce, he was raised by his grandfather, John O'Dell, a janitor at a public library, and his grandmother, Georgianna O'Dell.[4] His father, George Edwin O'Dell, worked in hotels and restaurants in Detroit. O'Dell's mother, Emily (Pitts) O'Dell, had studied music atHoward University and gave piano lessons. Growing up, Jack witnessed racial violence, labor strikes, and social injustice, which would influence his subsequent involvement in union struggles and social reform.[5]
O'Dell attended an all-black college,Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, from 1941 until 1943. He studiedpharmacology but left to enlist in theU.S. Marines.[5] During World War II, he served in theU.S. Merchant Marines, which functioned as a branch of the military forces for the duration of the conflict. He was an organizer for theNational Maritime Union (NMU), one of the few racially integrated labor unions in the United States.[2]
After returning from the war, O'Dell signed up withOperation Dixie, which attempted to organize Southern workers into labor unions.[2] He moved to the South and quickly showed his mediation skills when he defused a volatile situation in aMiami grocery store; it earned him a "Citizen of the Year" award from Miami's African-American Press.[2] During the 1948 presidential campaign, he led a group of WWII veterans supportingProgressive Party candidateHenry A. Wallace, who advocated for civil rights and labor rights, and opposedCold War militarism. O'Dell did graduate work atNew York University's School of Management, receiving a certificate in 1960. While in New York, he helped organize theApril 1959 Youth March for Integrated Schools, an event at whichMartin Luther King, Jr. spoke.[3]
In 1950, O'Dell joined theCommunist Party USA (CPUSA). He had recently been expelled from the NMU for his left-wing political views.[6][7] In 1956, prior to his appearance before theSenate Internal Security Subcommittee, O'Dell's home was raided by New Orleans police and a U.S. Marshal. They found communist books as well as a document with organizing instructions for CPUSA members; O'Dell was outraged, claiming the search was illegal and in violation of his4th Amendment rights.[7] In 1958, after he was subpoenaed by theHouse Un-American Activities Committee, he resigned from a black-owned insurance company he was working for, rather than create more difficulties for his employers.[8] At the end of the decade, O'Dell dropped out of the CPUSA, later stating he had become convinced "that we would get desegregation, and we would get it before we would get socialism."[6]
In 1961, O'Dell was invited to join the staff of Martin Luther King Jr.'sSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and "soon rose to prominence in the organization, in charge of both the New York fundraising office and voter registration operations in several Southern states."[6] In October 1962, theNew Orleans Times-Picayune published an article denouncing O'Dell as a CPUSA agent who had "infiltrated to the top administrative post" in the SCLC.[3] King defended the organization by saying they were "on guard against any such infiltration." He said the allegations were "a means of [harassing] Negroes and whites merely because of their belief inintegration."[3] King himself was already being monitored for political radicalism. In March 1962,Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy had authorizedFBI surveillance of King and his left-wing friendStanley Levison.[3]
In light of the political accusations against him, O'Dell submitted a temporary letter ofresignation from the SCLC in autumn of 1962.[9] At the time, he was reportedly on the verge of being named SCLC's Executive Director.[2] Even while suspended, he still helped with planning the 1963Birmingham campaign.[3]
O'Dell's relationship to King dated back to the late 1950s when he heard him preach at theDexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.[3] Because of O'Dell's past CPUSA involvement, King was receiving 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 to oust O'Dell from the SCLC, and not a reflection of King's feelings toward his friend.[4]
In June 1963, some civil rights leaders, including King, met at theWhite House with President Kennedy, who privately told King to cut ties with Levison and O'Dell due to their Communist connections.[4] King did not part ways with Levison, but he wrote to O'Dell asking him to permanently resign. King explained that "any allusion to the left brings forth an emotional response which would seem to indicate that SCLC and the Southern Freedom Movement are Communist inspired." King said that "O'Dell leaving was a significant sacrifice with sufferings in jail and loss of jobs under racist intimidation."[3] O'Dell submitted his final resignation on July 12, 1963. He said in a letter to King that his SCLC work was "a rewarding experience which I shall always cherish."[3]
After conferring with King, O'Dell decided to accept a less prominent post within the civil rights struggle, but he continued to exert an important influence on it, as well as on King's move to thepolitical left near the end of his life.[1] In a 1989 interview, O'Dell said he understood the practical considerations that compelled his exit from the SCLC:
It wasn't Martin's desire to let me go, but it was his decision not to get embarrassed by this issue. He held on as long as he could, hoping that the pressure from the federal government would ease. But they kept the pressure up. I left SCLC in July 1963. I stayed in touch, and I didn't have to make the effort. If any of their staff came through New York, they would "stop and see Jack".[10]
O'Dell was associate editor ofFreedomways—an African-American leftist political and cultural journal—from its inception in 1961 to its demise in 1985.[2] He regularly wrote editorials and essays forFreedomways.[11] Many of his contributions to the journal were anthologized in a 2012 collection,Climbin' Jacob's Ladder: The Black Freedom Movement Writings of Jack O'Dell.
From 1965 to 1972, he served on the National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam. He was also a student mentor at the Institute for Community Leadership and at the Jack O'Dell Education Center inKing County, Washington.[3]
To deepen his global understanding, O'Dell travelled to South Africa, Palestine, and Central America in the 1970s and 1980s.[12] He worked closely withJesse Jackson as a senior foreign policy advisor to the "Jesse Jackson for President" campaign in 1984, and as an international affairs consultant to theNational Rainbow Coalition.[13] From 1977 to 1997, O'Dell was chairman of the board of the Pacifica Foundation that operates the listener-sponsoredPacifica Radio Network.[14] He taught courses on colonialism and U.S. history at the Antioch Graduate School of Education in Washington, D.C.[15] He was also affiliated with theCommittees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.[16]
In his later years, O'Dell and his wife Jane Power lived inVancouver,British Columbia. He was active in mentoring new generations of political activists—as well as historians of the Civil Rights era—in thePacific Northwest.[17]
In 2018 a shortdocumentary film,The Issue of Mr. O'Dell, was made about his life. It was directed and produced by Rami Katz.[4]
O'Dell died of a stroke on October 31, 2019 at the age of 96.[4]
