Climbin' Jacob's Ladder

by Singh, Nikhil Pal

• ISBN13: 9780520259584
• ISBN10: 0520259580
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-18
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

This book collects for the first time the black freedom movement writings of Jack O'Dell and restores one of the great unsung heroes of the civil rights movement to his rightful place in the historical record.For the Durationputs O'Dell's historically significant essays in context and reveals how he helped shape the civil rights movement. From his early years in the 1940s National Maritime Union, to his pioneering work in the early 1960s with Martin Luther King Jr., to his international efforts for the Rainbow Coalition during the 1980s, O'Dell was instrumental in the development of black consciousness and the institutions that underpinned several decades of anti-racist struggle. He was a member of the outlawed Communist Party in the 1950s and endured red-baiting throughout his long social justice career. This volume is edited by Nikhil Pal Singh and includes a lengthy introduction based on interviews he conducted with O'Dell on his early life and later experiences.For the Durationprovides readers with a firm grasp of the civil rights movement's left wing, which O'Dell represents, and calls into question the insular narrative of American twentieth century history.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: "Learn Your Horn": Jack O'Dell and the Long Civil Rights Movement	p. 1
Tracing the Freedomway
Report on Voter Registration Work, Southern Christian Leadership Conference	p. 71
Foundations of Racism in American Life	p. 80
Editorial, Freedomways Special Issue on Mississippi	p. 102
The Threshold of a New Reconstruction	p. 110
A Colonized People	p. 124
The July Rebellions and the "Military State"	p. 145
Climbin' Jacob's Ladder: The Life and Times of the Freedom Movement	p. 160
Charleston's Legacy to the Poor People's Campaign	p. 177
Report of the Acting Executive Director, Southern Christian Leadership Conference	p. 192
A Rock in a Weary Lan': Paul Robeson's Leadership and "The Movement" in the Decade before Montgomery	p. 199
An Assessment: PUSH's First Five Years and Its Next Five	p. 215
On the Transition from Civil Rights to Civil Equality	p. 222
The Rainbow Coalition: Organizational Principles	p. 255
Contemporary Reflections
Democracy Charter	p. 263
Reclaiming the Second Reconstruction: Democracy, Class, and the Social Transformation of the United States	p. 274
Afterword: Growing Light in a Dark Time	p. 295
Editor's Note	p. 298
Index	p. 299
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