O'Dell has continued his efforts to make his presence felt in the civil rights movement on behalf of the CPUSA. The Winter 1967 issue of Freedomways, self-described as a review of the Negro freedom movement, lists O'Dell as Associate Managing Editor. Actually, Freedomways is a CPUSA-initiated and CPUSA-supported publication espousing the communist viewpoint of Negro problems.
King Speaks at Rally Honoring Communist
On February 23, 1968, King was the guest speaker at a rally of more than one thousand people at Carnegie Hall, New York City, sponsored by Freedomways, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of W.E.B. DuBois, a famous Negro civil rights crusader who joined the Communist Party at age 93. Jack O'Dell, the popular name used by Hunter Pitts O'Dell, was also listed as one of the speakers at this affair.
On the following day, Stanley Levison confided to Clarence Jones that King performed very badly at the Freedomways rally. He commented: "King has never read anything as badly," and, "as though he did not understand what he was reading."
Former Communist Advisors
Bayard Rustin was a former advisor to King and a one-time assistant secretary of the SCLC. Rustin has publicly admitted affiliation with the communist movement in the late 1930s. He was also one of a selected number of observers permitted to attend the CPUSA's National Convention in 1957. King said he had to let Rustin go because of problems arising from his homosexual activities. Rustin has long been so inclined, having been arrested in New York City in 1946 for offering to commit a lewd or indecent act. Rustin was arrested again in Pasadena, California, in 1953, for offering to engage in an act of sex perversion of a homosexual nature, which he admitted, and for which he was sentenced to serve 60 days.
Advisory Committee Established for King
On June 22, 1964, an advisory and research committee was formed, with King's approval, for the purpose of writing
