The Issue of Mr. O’Dell

In his mid-90s, Jack O’Dell is one of the oldest living participants of the civil rights movement and perhaps one of its least celebrated leaders - and still as outspoken as ever. A self-proclaimed supporter of both the 1950s Communist Party and the 1960s civil rights movement, O’Dell was executive assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and one of King’s most trusted advisers in the years before the March on Washington. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy named him the number five Communist in the United States. This film tells the significant story of Jack O’Dell and the circumstances that led him to become part of the legacy of trailblazing, unsung heroes in American history. The issue of Mr. O’Dell is complicated at best. (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival)