Editing Manning Marable

{{Short description|American academic (1950–2011)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Manning Marable
|image = Manning Marable by David Shankbone.jpg
|caption = Marable in 2007
|birth_name=William Manning Marable
|birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1950|5|13}}
|birth_place = [[Dayton, Ohio]], U.S.
|death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|2011|4|1|1950|5|13}}
|death_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
|spouse = Hazel Ann Marable
{{marriage|[[Leith Mullings]]|1996}}
|citizenship = 
|alma_mater = {{ubl | [[Earlham College]] | [[University of Wisconsin]] | [[University of Maryland]]}}
|known_for = 
|awards = 
|signature = 
}}

'''William Manning Marable''' (May 13, 1950 – April 1, 2011)<ref name="nytobit"/> was an American professor of [[public policy|public affairs]], history and [[African-American Studies]] at [[Columbia University]].<ref name="nytobit">{{cite news|last=Grimes|first= William|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/arts/manning-marable-60-historian-and-social-critic.html |title=Manning Marable, Historian and Social Critic, Dies at 60|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 1, 2011|access-date= April 2, 2011}}</ref> Marable founded and directed the Institute for Research in [[African American studies|African-American Studies]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://iraas.columbia.edu/about/founding-director|title=FOUNDING DIRECTOR {{!}} IRAAS Institute for Research in African-American Studies|website=iraas.columbia.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-05-10}}</ref> He wrote several texts and was active in numerous [[progressivism|progressive]] political causes.

At the time of his death, he had completed a biography of human rights activist [[Malcolm X]], titled ''[[Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention]]'' (2011).<ref>{{cite web|last=Goodman|first= Amy|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2007/5/21/manning_marable_on_malcolm_x_a |title=Manning Marable on Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention|website=[[Democracy Now!]]|date= May 21, 2007|access-date= April 2, 2011}}</ref>  Marable was posthumously awarded the 2012 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] for this work.<ref name=Pulitzer>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-late-manning-marable-wins-history-pulitzer-no-fiction-award-for-first-time-in-35-years/2012/04/16/gIQADJIzLT_story.html |title=The late Manning Marable wins history Pulitzer; no fiction prize given |agency=Associated Press |work=The Washington Post |date=April 16, 2012 |access-date=April 16, 2012 }}{{dead link|date=June 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

==Life and career==

Marable was born and raised in [[Dayton, Ohio]]. His parents were both graduates of [[Central State University|Central State]], an [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black university]] in nearby [[Wilberforce, Ohio|Wilberforce]]. His mother was an ordained minister and held a Ph.D.<ref name=DDN>{{cite news|last=Katz|first=Marc|title=Marable part of Dayton's literary legacy|newspaper=[[Dayton Daily News]]|date=2011-05-08|page=D4}}</ref> In April 1968, at the behest of his mother, 17-year-old Marable covered the [[funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.]] for Dayton's black newspaper. He graduated from [[Jefferson Township High School (Dayton, Ohio)|Jefferson Township High School]] shortly thereafter.<ref name=Columbia_magazine>{{cite web|url=http://magazine.columbia.edu/features/summer-2011/manning-marables-living-legacy|title=Manning Marable's Living Legacy|date=Summer 2011|website=columbia.edu|publisher=Columbia Magazine|access-date=2017-04-03}}</ref>

Marable 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 the [[University of Wisconsin]], and [[University of Maryland]]. Marable served on the faculty of [[Smith College]], [[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 was recruited in 1993 by [[Columbia University]] professor [[Eric Foner]] to be the founding director of Columbia's Institute for Research in African-American Studies,<ref name="Columbia Hond">{{cite news |last1=Hond |first1=Paul |title=A Message for the World |url=https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/message-world |access-date=February 7, 2021 |work=Columbia Magazine |date=Summer 2011}}</ref> and was later appointed as the [[M. Moran Weston]] and Black Alumni Council Professor of African-American Studies and professor of history and public affairs.<ref name="nytobit" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://international.ucla.edu/africa/event/7404|title=20th Thurgood Marshall Lecture by Dr. Manning Marable|website=African Studies Center|publisher=UCLA|date=April 16, 2009}}</ref>
{{Quote box
| quote = "One thing I remember... ...is how vigorously he stressed the fact that he saw himself as both a scholar, and an activist. For him, the two vocations were inseparable... ...when he became the founding director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS) a few years earlier, he'd envisioned it as fundamentally a community resource.  And by 'community,' he pointed out, 'I don't mean just Columbia, or even [[Morningside Heights]].' He gestured toward the window of his 6th floor office, which afforded views to the north and the east. 'We're not in Morningside Heights! We're in [[Harlem]]!{{'"}}
| source = John McMillan, former graduate assistant to Marable<ref name="Atlantic Manning">{{cite news |last1=McMillan |first1=John |title=For Manning |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/04/for-manning/73391/ |access-date=February 7, 2021 |work=The Atlantic |date=April 4, 2011}}</ref>
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| width = 40%
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In 1979, Marable joined the [[New American Movement|New American Movement (NAM)]], an organization of veterans of the New Left who were trying to build a successor to Students for a Democratic Society. In 1982, NAM merged with Michael Harrington’s [[Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee]] to form the [[Democratic Socialists of America|Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)]], and Marable was elected as one of the new organization’s vice chairs. He left the DSA in 1985 after Michael Harrington and his allies, following the lead of much of the mainstream union leadership, refused to back Jesse Jackson’s insurgent campaign in 1984.

Marable served as Chair of Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS).<ref name="good2007">{{cite web|last=Good|first= Thomas|url=http://antiauthoritarian.net/NLN/?p=179 |title=MDS Conference Elects Manning Marable Chair of MDS, Inc.|website=Next Left Notes|date= February 20, 2007}}</ref> Marable served on the Board of Directors for the [[Benjamin Chavis#Hip-Hop|Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN)]], a non-profit coalition of public figures working to utilize [[hip-hop]] as an agent for social change.<ref name="hsanboard">[http://www.hsan.org/Content/main.aspx?pageid=10 Hip-Hop Summit Action Network Board of Directors.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918033232/http://www.hsan.org/content/main.aspx?pageid=10 |date=September 18, 2008 }}</ref> Marable was also a member of the New York Legislature's Amistad Commission, created to review state curriculum regarding the slave trade.<ref name="bryant2008">{{cite news|last=Bryant|first= Erica|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/democratandchronicle/access/1693306341.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+29%2C+2008&author=Erica+Bryant&pub=Rochester+Democrat+and+Chronicle&desc=City+schools+want+better+curriculum+on+Africa&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106084502/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/democratandchronicle/access/1693306341.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+29,+2008&author=Erica+Bryant&pub=Rochester+Democrat+and+Chronicle&desc=City+schools+want+better+curriculum+on+Africa&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |title=City schools want better curriculum on Africa|newspaper=[[Democrat and Chronicle]]|date= December 29, 2008}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Marable was married twice, first to his Earlham classmate, Hazel Ann Marable, and then from 1996 until his death, to [[Leith Mullings]], Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Marable was a critic of [[Afrocentrism]]. He wrote:<ref>Manning Marable, ''Beyond Black and White: Transforming African American Politics'', p. 192.</ref>

{{blockquote|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.&nbsp;... 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.}}

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."<ref name="glick2004">Glick, Ted. [http://www.pcdc.edu.ps/US_anti_arab_books.htm 2004 Racism Watch Calls for Action to End Use of Anti-Arab Books by the U.S. Government.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830052616/http://www.pcdc.edu.ps/US_anti_arab_books.htm |date=August 30, 2010 }} via PCDC (June 2, 2004).</ref> In a 2008 column, Marable endorsed Senator [[Barack Obama]]'s bid for the [[Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008|2008 Democratic presidential nomination]].<ref name="manning2008">{{cite web|last=Marable|first= Manning|url=http://www.blackcommentator.com/267/267_along_the_color_line_obama.html |title=Story: Barack Obama's Problem - And Ours - Along the Color Line|website=Black Commentator|date= March 6, 2008}}</ref>
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://vimeo.com/39575484 Tribute film shown at Marable's memorial ceremony]}} 
Marable, who was diagnosed with [[sarcoidosis]], underwent a [[double lung transplant]] as treatment in mid-2010.<ref name="Kellogg2011">{{cite news|last=Kellogg|first= Carolyn|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/04/malcolm-x-biographer-manning-marable-has-died.html |title=Malcolm X biographer Manning Marable has died|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date= April 1, 2011}}</ref> Marable died of complications from [[pneumonia]] on April 1, 2011, in [[New York City]] at the age of 60.<ref name="rohter2011">{{cite news|last=Rohter|first= Larry|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/manning-marable-african-american-studies-scholar-has-died-at-60/ |title=Manning Marable, African-American Studies Scholar, Has Died at 60|newspaper=The New York Times|date= April 1, 2011}}</ref>

==Malcolm X biography==
{{main|Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention}}
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.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2011/04/05/135144230/manning-marables-reinvention-of-malcolm-x "Manning Marable's 'Reinvention' Of Malcolm X"], ''All Things Considered'', April 5, 2011.</ref><ref name="Columbia Hond" />

Critics of the biography contend that the focus on Marable's discussion of Malcolm's potential same-sex relationships, about three sentences long in a 592-page book, overlooks more important political statements Marable makes about Malcolm's underlying lifelong commitment to revolutionary Pan Africanism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Boyd|first=Herb|title=By Any Means Necessary|year=2012|publisher=Third World Press|location=Chicago|isbn=9780883783368|pages=[https://archive.org/details/byanymeansnecess0000unse/page/142 142–148]|display-authors=etal|url=https://archive.org/details/byanymeansnecess0000unse/page/142}}</ref>

''Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention'' was nominated for the [[National Book Award]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2011_nf_marable.html |title=2011 National Book Award Finalist, Nonfiction |publisher=[[National Book Foundation]] |access-date=November 14, 2011 |archive-date=April 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405123849/http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2011_nf_marable.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and ''[[The New York Times]]'' ranked it among the 10 Best Books of 2011.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html?ref=review | work=The New York Times | title=10 Best Books of 2011 | date=November 30, 2011}}</ref> It was one of three nominees for the inaugural [[Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction]] (2012) presented by the [[American Library Association]] for the best adult non-fiction.<ref name=lj2012>{{cite web |url=http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/05/readers-advisory/wyatts-world-the-carnegie-medals-short-list/ |title=Wyatt's World: The Carnegie Medals Short List |date=May 21, 2012 |first=Neal |last=Wyatt |access-date=May 23, 2012 |work=[[Library Journal]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527134905/http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/05/readers-advisory/wyatts-world-the-carnegie-medals-short-list/ |archive-date=May 27, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It was awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] in 2012.<ref name=Pulitzer/>

==Writings==
* ''How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America'' (1983), {{ISBN|978-0-89608-165-9}}
* ''African and Caribbean Politics: From Kwame Nkrumah to Maurice Bishop'' (1987), {{ISBN|978-0-86091-884-4}}
* ''Race, Reform and Rebellion'' (1991), {{ISBN|978-0-87805-493-0}}
* ''Beyond Black and White: Transforming African American Politics'' (1995), {{ISBN|978-1-85984-049-8}}
* ''Speaking Truth to Power: Essays on Race, Resistance, and Radicalism'' (1996), {{ISBN|978-0-8133-8828-1}}
* ''Black Liberation in Conservative America'' (1997), {{ISBN|978-0-89608-559-6}}
* ''Black Leadership'' (1998), {{ISBN|978-0-231-10746-4}}
* ''Let Nobody Turn Us Around'' (2000), {{ISBN|978-0-8476-9930-8}}
* ''Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle'' (with Leith Mullings and Sophie Spencer-Wood, 2002), {{ISBN|978-0-7148-4270-7}}
* ''The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life'' (2003), {{ISBN|978-0-465-04394-1}}
* ''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|0-465-02177-8}}
* ''[[Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention]]'' (2011), {{ISBN|978-0-670-02220-5}}
* ''Living Black History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America's Racial Future'' (2011), {{ISBN|9780465043958}}
* ''The Portable Malcolm X Reader'' (2013, with Garrett Felber), {{ISBN|978-0-14-310694-4}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[http://findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_9364858/ Finding aid to the Manning Marable papers at Columbia University] [https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/rbml.html/ Rare Book & Manuscript Library]
*{{C-SPAN}}

{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 2001–2025}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Marable, Manning}}
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Academics from Ohio]]
[[Category:African-American historians]]
[[Category:African-American social scientists]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American Marxist historians]]
[[Category:American political scientists]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American social sciences writers]]
[[Category:Black studies scholars]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Critics of Afrocentrism]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Earlham College alumni]]
[[Category:Historians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Historians from Ohio]]
[[Category:Historians of African Americans]]
[[Category:Lung transplant recipients]]
[[Category:Members of the Democratic Socialists of America]]
[[Category:Educators from Dayton, Ohio]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for History winners]]
[[Category:University of Maryland, College Park alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Dayton, Ohio]]
[[Category:Writers from New York City]]