Jack O'Dell papers

1962-2004

Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1923, Jack H. O'Dell was an African-American Communist organizer in the National Maritime Union who later became head of fund raising and voter registration in several Southern States for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). O'Dell was also an associate editor of "Freedomways" magazine and a faculty member at Antioch College's graduate school of education in Washington, D.C. He joined People United to Save Humanity (Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH) as a foreign policy adviser in 1976, and was a consultant on international affairs during Rev. Jackson's first presidential bid in 1984. He remains active in peace and social justice issues. A selection of papers documenting Jack O'Dell's role as policy adviser to Rev. Jesse Jackson and as director of international affairs for the National Rainbow Coalition in Washington, D.C. during the 1980s. Included are correspondence and notes, conference packets and other material related to civil rights (1962-2004), the Africa Leadership Forum (1988-1991), the Reparations Conference in Nigeria (Dec. 1990), Constituency for Africa (1992), and Solidarity movements in Africa (Southern Africa, Zambia), the Middle East (Palestine, Iran), Asia (China, India), Latin America (Nicaragua, Cuba), and Europe (GDR), 1959-2000s. Occasional correspondents include Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights attorney Clarence B. Jones, Anne Braden of the Southern Conference Educational Fund, historian Manning Marable, Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and Casa de Las Americas president, Roberto Fernandez Retamar. Also includes a correspondence file for a 1970 Martin Luther King, Jr. documentary film project, and transcript of an oral history interview done with James Early, 1997.