 Jack O’Dell is truly one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, and thus, one of America’s unsung heroes.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, he organized labor unions, wrote the first anti-Vietnam War editorial in a black periodical, and played critical roles in numerous civil rights campaigns including Birmingham. He also served as the Director of Voter Registration for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) until he was forced to resign because of Communist ties in 1963. I recently spoke with O’Dell from his home in Vancouver, B.C. At 86, he still possesses the same erudition that assisted Martin Luther King plan the Birmingham campaign in late 1962. Birmingham, made famous by the photos of police dogs high-powered fire hoses, became the lasting symbol of segregation, revealing globally the incongruence between the democratic values America espouse and its praxis. The movement, having been stung by the public perception of failure in its previous campaign to desegregate Albany, GA, planned Birmingham with the knowledge that it needed a victory to sustain its efforts. But O’Dell takes issue with the public perception that Albany was a failure. O’Dell argues that Albany was part of a systematic strategy that would lead into Birmingham and to the March on Washington in August 1963. For O’Dell, classifying Albany as a defeat was a superficial assessment that is often made by those evaluating movements in which they are not actively involved. The lessons of Albany would be the fuel for Birmingham.
Recounting the meetings that led to the Birmingham campaign, O’Dell spoke glowingly of King’s leadership style. "Many leaders aren't good listeners because they have already made up their minds,” he said.
“But Dr. King wasn't that type of leader - he was a good listener.”
The result of the meeting was detailed strategy known as Project C (for confrontation), calling for a combination of targeted sit-ins, economic boycotts of the downtown business section with larger protests; and massive demonstrations designed to give attention to the boycotts as well as fill the jails. Finally, the plan would call on those outside of Birmingham to descend on the city, increasing the attention on the boycotts by overcrowding the jails.
King needed assurances from O’Dell that there was a plan in place to ensure the necessary resources were available to carry out the strategy. The movement could ill-afford to fill Birmingham’s jail but unable to make bail.
After O’Dell convinced King that an effective direct mail fundraising campaign was in place, Project C commenced on April 3, 1963. Project C would prove that the hatred of police dogs and fire hoses was no match for the commitment to the ideals that the nation was founded upon.
But O’Dell, who had been a valuable member of the SCLC team, would later that year become a source of controversy. In 1963 communism was the fear du jour.
FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, hardly sympathetic to the movement’s cause, labeled O’Dell and fellow SCLC member Stanley Levison, as dangerous Communist operatives. Neither of Levison or O’Dell made their affiliation with the Communist Party a secret; and they were clearly not dangerous as Hoover alleged. Moreover, their affiliation with the Communist Party had broken no U.S. laws.
Unfortunately, the price the Kennedy Administration would demand from King for supporting civil rights legislation would be the removal of O’Dell from his SCLC position.
It was a cruel irony of history in that a group of citizens put the elasticity of Jeffersonian democracy to the test, and the only way the federal government would support their noble cause would be to dictate who could openly participate in their movement.
What ultimately happened to Jack O’Dell remains with us today. The Cold War fears of communism have been replaced by 21st century fears of terrorism. Each day we bear witness to the paralyzing impact fear has on our democracy.
But Jack O’Dell is not bitter; he remains the same prisoner of hope today that he was in 1963, which ultimately led to the nation moving closer to its own democratic values.
For those who wish to listen to my interview with Jack O’Dell you can find it at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Byronspeakscom/2009/05/29/Birmingham-1963
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