The Panopticon Review: IN TRIBUTE TO AND HONOR OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (1929-1968): Part 2

Monday, January 19, 2026

IN TRIBUTE TO AND HONOR OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (1929-1968): Part 2

All,

In honor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) -- visionary prophet, social activist, cultural critic, public intellectual, community organizer, radical political leader, and profound global advocate and defender of peace, freedom, justice, equality, and human rights whose extraordinary contributions to the history of the ongoing African American liberation struggle in all of its many complex dimensions, and the general mass movements for social, cultural, economic, and political revolution against all forms of racism, sexism, militarism, imperialism, and class domination in the United States and in the rest of the world remain absolutely essential and invaluable to this day.

Kofi

https://monthlyreview.org/2011/05/01/the-jack-odell-story/

Jack O'Dell - The Radical Martin Luther King
AfroMarxist
June 6, 2018

Jack O'Dell - The Radical Martin Luther King

VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slxGTkKtdxo

Monthly Review An Independent Socialist Magazine
Topics: History , Labor

Book Review

The Jack O’Dell Story
by Paul Buhle
May 1, 2011

PHOTO: Jack O’Dell (1923-2019), also known as Hunter Pitts O’Dell, was a Communist Party organizer, an outstanding political theorist and journalist a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a trusted senior advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a civil rights activist. O’Dell was deeply involved in Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign, as well as numerous other civil rights organizing events throughout the United States. He died at age 96 in 2019.

MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words
January 15, 2024

Democracy Now!

VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcbGiZKuvw

Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

Jack O'Dell (1923-2019): Black Activist & Civil Rights Organizer
February 24, 2024

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.

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