July 26, 1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King said today a 39-year-old Negro linked by Congressional committees to the Communist movement had worked twice for his Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But Dr. King said the man, Jack O’Dell (pictured testifying before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in 1956) of New York, had left his organization for the second time on June 26 and no longer was associated with it. Dr. King called a news conference to deny a report in The Atlanta Constitution that Mr. O’Dell was currently employed by his group. Dr. King acknowledged that Mr. O’Dell “may have had some connections in the past” with Communism. But “we were convinced that he had renounced them and had become committed to the Christian philosophy of nonviolence in dealing with America’s social injustices,” he said. Dr. King said Mr. O’Dell left on June 26 by “mutual agreement” because of concern that his affiliation with the integration movement would be used by “segregationists and race-baiters.” The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and the House Committee on Un-American Activities have linked Mr. O’Dell with Communist activity.
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