Hunter Pitts O'Dell

1
Early life
2
Communist party
3
Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement
4
Jesse Jackson
5
Later years
6
Today
7
References
8
Other resources
9
External links
Early life[edit]
Jack O'Dell was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1923. O Dell was raised there by his
grandfather, a janitor at a public library, and his grandmother. He 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 functio
ned 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 integr
ated labor unions in the U.S.[2]
Communist party[edit]
During the 1950s, Jack O'Dell was a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).(T
he Man Behind the Myth, Des Griffin, p20)
Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement[edit]
He worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. O'Dell was a director of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Because of O'Dell's past involvement wi
th the Communist Party, Dr. King received pressure from many liberal leaders inclu
ding the Kennedy brothers, John and Robert to distance himself from O'Dell. After
conferring with King, O'Dell decided to accept a less prominent post within the
movement in order not to alienate important allies of the Civil Rights struggle;
nevertheless, he continued to play a decisive role in the SCLC, as well as in K
ing's move towards the political left towards the end of his life.[3]
Jesse Jackson[edit]
Jack O'Dell worked closely with the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He was a senior foreign
policy advisor to the "Jesse Jackson for President" campaign in 1984. He also wo
rked with Jackson as an international affairs consultant to the National Rainbow
Coalition
Later years[edit]
O'Dell wrote for Freedomways, an African-American political journal, from its be
ginning in 1961 to its end in 1985.[2] He was Chair of the Pacifica Foundation,
which supports the Pacifica Radio Network, from 1977 to 1997.[4]
Today[edit]
Jack O'Dell lives with his wife, Jane Power, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Can
ada. He is active in mentoring new generations of political activists as well as h
istorians of the Civil Rights Movement in the Pacific Northwest.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ O Dell, Hunter. "O'Dell, Hunter Pitts "Jack" (1923- )". stanford.edu. Re
trieved 8 November 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b Buhle, Paul (May 2011). "The Jack O'Dell Story". Monthly Revie
w. 63 (01). Retrieved 21 December 2014.
Jump up ^ "O Dell, Hunter Pitts Jack (1923- )" in Martin Luther King Encyclopedia
Jump up ^ http://www.pacifica.org/about_history.php
Other resources[edit]
Kenneth R. Timmerman. Shakedown: Exposing the real Jesse Jackson (2002). Regnery
Publishing, Inc.
Diane McWhorter. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the
Civil Rights Revolution (2001). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-1772-1
Michael Zweig, ed. Jack O'Dell: The Urgency of Now (2005). State University of N
ew York, Stony Brook, Department of Economics.
Singh, Nikhil (2012). Climbin' Jacob's Ladder; the Black Freedom Movement Writin
gs of Jack O'Dell. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 330. ISBN 97

80520274549.
External links[edit]
Seven Questions: Jack O'Dell and Jane Power Retrieved 28 January 2006