Biographies: Hunter Pitts O'Dell - Actor

Biographies

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An African-American activist writer and communist, best known for his involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Hunter Pitts O'Dell was born on August 11, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, where he was brought up by his grandfather, a janitor at a public library, and his strict Catholic grandmother. From 1941 until 1943, he attended an all-black college, Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. During WWII, he served in the US Merchant Marines, which served as a branch of the military throughout the conflict. During this period, he joined the National Maritime Union, one of the few racially integrated labor unions in the United States at the time. He was a member of the Communist Party USA during the 1950s. Moreover, he worked with Martin Luther King Jr. He appeared as himself in the short film about his life The Issue of Mr. O'Dell (2018), directed and produced by Rami Katz. He passed away on October 31, 2019, at the age of 96.

• 18 September 2022
• Dalia Saad