Manning Marable

Manning Marable
Manning Marable in 2007.
Born	May 13, 1950(1950-05-13) Dayton, Ohio, United States
Died	April 1, 2011(2011-04-01) (aged 60) New York City, New York, United States
Alma mater	Earlham College, University of Maryland
Spouse	Leith Mullings

William Manning Marable (May 13, 1950 – April 1, 2011) was an American professor of public affairs, history and African-American Studies at Columbia University. Marable founded and directed the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. Marable authored several texts and was active in progressive political causes. At the time of his death, Marable had completed a biography of human rights activist Malcolm X, entitled Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.

Life and career

Marable was born in Dayton, Ohio. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Earlham College (1971) and went on to earn his master's degree (1972) and Ph.D. (1976) in history, at University of Wisconsin, and University of Maryland. Marable served on the faculty of Tuskegee Institute, University of San Francisco, Cornell University, Fisk University, served as the founding director of the Africana and Hispanic Studies Program at Colgate University, Purdue University, Ohio State University, and University of Colorado at Boulder, where he was chairman of the Department of Black Studies. He founded the Institute for Research in African-American Studies (1993) at Columbia University, later appointed as the M. Moran Weston and Black Alumni Council Professor of African-American Studies and professor of history and public affairs.

Marable served as Chair of Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS). Marable served on the Board of Directors for the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), a non-profit coalition of public figures working to utilize hip-hop as an agent for social change. Marable was also a member of the New York Legislature's Amistad Commission, created to review state curriculum regarding the slave trade.

Marable was a critic of Afrocentrism. He wrote:

Populist Afrocentrism was the perfect social theory for the upwardly mobile black petty bourgeoisie. It gave them a sense of ethnic superiority and cultural originality, without requiring the hard, critical study of historical realities. It provided a philosophical blueprint to avoid concrete struggle within the real world.... It was, in short, only the latest theoretical construct of a politics of racial identity, a world-view designed to discuss the world but never really to change it.

— Manning Marable, Beyond Black and White: Transforming African American Politics

It was reported in June 2004 by activist group Racism Watch that Marable had called for immediate action to be taken to end the U.S. military's use of Raphael Patai's book The Arab Mind which Marable described as "a book full of racially charged stereotypes and generalizations." In a 2008 column, Marable endorsed Senator Barack Obama's bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Marable, who was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, underwent a double lung transplant as treatment in summer 2010. Marable died of complications from pneumonia on April 1, 2011 in New York City at the age of 60.

He is survived by his wife, Dr. Leith Mullings of New York; three children, Joshua Manning Marable of Boulder; Malaika Marable Serrano of Silver Spring, Md.; and Sojourner Marable Grimmett of Atlanta; two stepchildren, Alia Tyner of Manhattan and Michael Tyner of Brooklyn; a sister, Madonna Marable of Dayton; and three grandchildren. He is also survived by his two previous wives, with whom he shared parts and aspects of his career.

Malcolm X biography

Marable's biography of Malcolm X concluded that Malcolm X exaggerated his early criminal career, and engaged in a homosexual relationship with a white businessman. He also concluded that some of the killers of Malcolm X are still alive and were never charged.

The biography has attracted criticism. Karl Evanzz, the author of The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X, referred to Marable's book as an "abomination" and stated that "it is a cavalcade of innuendo and logical fallacy, and is largely reinvented from previous works on the subject".

University of Chicago professor Michael Dawson defended Marable's biography stating Marable had "precisely focused on some of the critical central questions confronting black and progressive politics."

Author and journalist Herb Boyd stated he found as many as 25 significant errors in the book, some of which he described as "absolutely egregious". In response, Chicago Black publishing imprint Third World Press released By Any Means Necessary Malcolm X: Real Not Reinvented By Herb Boyd, Ron Daniels, Maulana Karenga and Haki R. Madhubuti in October 2011.

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention was nominated for the National Book Award, while The New York Times ranked it among the 10 Best Books of 2011.

Writings

• How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America (1983) ISBN 9780896081659
• Race, Reform and Rebellion (1991) ISBN 9780878054930
• Beyond Black and White (1995) ISBN 9781859840498
• Speaking Truth to Power: Essays on Race, Resistance, and Radicalism (1996) ISBN 978-0813388281
• Black Liberation in Conservative America (1997) ISBN 9780896085596
• Black Leadership (1998) ISBN 9780231107464
• Let Nobody Turn Us Around (2000) ISBN 978-0847699308
• Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle (with Leith Mullings and Sophie Spencer-Wood, 2002) ISBN 978-0714842707
• The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life (2003) ISBN 978-0465043941
• W. E. B. DuBois: Black Radical Democrat (2005) ISBN 978-1-59451-019-9
• The Autobiography of Medgar Evers (2005, with Myrlie Evers-Williams) ISBN 0465021778
• Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (2011) ISBN 978-0670022205

External links

• Hond, Paul (Summer 2011). "Manning Marable's Living Legacy". Columbia Magazine. http://magazine.columbia.edu/features/summer-2011/manning-marables-living-legacy. 
• Manning Marable interview via Tavis Smiley (PBS)