Climbin' Jacob's Ladder: The Black Freedom Movement Writings of Jack O'Dell

by Jack O'Dell, Nikhil Pal Singh (Editor)

Overview

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. Climbin' Jacob's Ladder puts 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 the intellectual vision 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. Climbin' Jacob's Ladder provides readers with a firm grasp of the civil rights movement's left wing, which O'Dell represents, and illuminates a more radical and global account of twentieth-century US history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520274549
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	09/30/2012
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jack O'Dell was Editor of Freedomways, a legendary publication that from 1961-1985 published Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Pablo Neruda, and Alice Walker, among many others. Nikhil Pal Singh is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at New York University. He is the author of Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
“Learn Your Horn”: Jack O’Dell and the Long Civil Rights Movement
Nikhil Pal Singh

Part One: Tracing the Freedomway
Report on Voter Registration Work, Southern Christian,Leadership Conference
Foundations of Racism in American Life
Editorial, Freedomways Special Issue on Mississippi
The Threshold of a New Reconstruction
A Colonized People
The July Rebellions and the “Military State”
Climbin’ Jacob’s Ladder: The Life and Times of the Freedom Movement
Charleston’s Legacy to the Poor People’s Campaign
Report of the Acting Executive Director, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
A Rock in a Weary Lan’: Paul Robeson’s Leadership and “The Movement” in the Decade before Montgomery
An Assessment: PUSH’s First Five Years and Its Next Five
On the Transition from Civil Rights to Civil Equality
The Rainbow Coalition: Organizational Principles

Part Two: Contemporary Reflections
Democracy Charter
Reclaiming the Second Reconstruction: Democracy, Class, and the Social Transformation of the United States

Afterword: Growing Light in a Dark Time
Editor’s Note
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"O'Dell is an intelligent and astute writer, organizer, and leader. . . . Singh's . . . introduction is a valuable narrative of the social and intellectual history of the late 20th century, told from a perspective that has been too often missing. . . Important for students of the civil rights movement and US social History."—Choice

Editorial Reviews

O’Dell is an intelligent and astute writer, organizer, and leader. . . . Singh’s . . . introduction is a valuable narrative of the social and intellectual history of the late 20th century, told from a perspective that has been too often missing. . . Important for students of the civil rights movement and US social History.

Choice

O’Dell is an intelligent and astute writer, organizer, and leader. . . . Important for students of the civil rights movement and US social History.

CHOICE

"Climbin’ Jacob’s Ladder is an important document in political history, even more so in exploring the intimate political and cultural history of the left so often undiscussed, or discussed only among trusted friends."

Monthly Review

Like the title of Ornette Coleman's classic 1959 album Tomorrow is the Question!, Climbin 'Jacob's Ladder questions the ultimate legacy of the civil rights movement as chaotic social and economic conditions continue to define many African Americans, as well as they do the global poor. In his introduction, Singh stipulates that "this book is meant less as a simple act of recovery than as a reminder and resource of hope in times of darkness." With Climbin' Jacob's Ladder, Singh and O'Dell have more than accomplished the difficult task of prompting productive memory.

African American Review