William Manning Marable (May 13, 1950 – April 1, 2011) was an American professor of public affairs, history and African-American Studies at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

.Grimes, William
"Manning Marable, Historian and Social Critic, Dies at 60"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', April 1, 2011. Retrieved April 2, 2011. Marable founded and directed the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. He wrote several texts and was active in progressive political causes. At the time of his death, he had completed a biography of human rights activist

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...

, titled '' Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention'' (2011). Marable was posthumously awarded the 2012

Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...

for this work.

Life and career

Marable was born and raised in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

. His parents were both graduates of Central State, an

historically black university Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

in nearby Wilberforce. His mother was an ordained minister and held a Ph.D. In April 1968, at the behest of his mother, 17-year-old Marable covered the

funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. The first memorial service following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, took place the following day at the R.S. Lewis Funeral Home in Memphis, Tennessee. This was followed by two funeral services on April 9, 1968, ...

for Dayton's black newspaper. He graduated from

Jefferson Township High School This is a list of memorials to Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States and the author of the United States Declaration of Independence. Buildings Elementary schools *Jefferson Elementary School, in Cammack Village, Arkansas *Thoma ...

shortly thereafter. Marable received his Bachelor of Arts degree from

Earlham College Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...

(1971) and went on to earn his master's degree (1972) and Ph.D. (1976) in history, at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, and

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. Marable served on the faculty of

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

, served as the founding director of the Africana and Hispanic Studies Program at

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, and

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

, where he was chairman of the Department of Black Studies. He was recruited in 1993 by

professor

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstru ...

to be the founding director of Columbia's Institute for Research in African-American Studies, and was later appointed as the

M. Moran Weston Milton Moran Weston II (better known as M. Moran Weston, September 10, 1910 – May 18, 2002) was an African-American Episcopal priest who "led one of Harlem's most prominent churches, helped found what became the nation's largest black-owned ...

and Black Alumni Council Professor of African-American Studies and professor of history and public affairs. In 1979, Marable joined the 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 The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC; ) was a democratic socialist organization in the United States. The DSOC was founded in 1973 by Michael Harrington, who had led a minority caucus in the Socialist Party of America and disag ...

to form the 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).Good, Thomas
"MDS Conference Elects Manning Marable Chair of MDS, Inc."
''Next Left Notes'', February 20, 2007. 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.Hip-Hop Summit Action Network Board of Directors.
Marable was also a member of the New York Legislature's Amistad Commission, created to review state curriculum regarding the slave trade.Bryant, Erica

''

Democrat and Chronicle The ''Democrat and Chronicle'' is a daily newspaper serving the greater Rochester, New York, area. At 245 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, the ''Democrat and Chronicle'' operates under the ownership of Gannett. The paper's production fa ...

'', December 29, 2008.

Personal life

Marable was married twice, first to his Earlham classmate, Hazel Ann Marable, and then from 1996 until his death, to

Leith Mullings Leith Patricia Mullings (April 8, 1945 – December 13, 2020) was a Jamaican-born author, anthropologist and professor. She was president of the American Anthropological Association from 2011–2013, and was a Distinguished Professor of Anthropol ...

, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Marable was a critic of

Afrocentrism Afrocentrism is an approach to the study of world history that focuses on the history of people of recent African descent. It is in some respects a response to Eurocentric attitudes about African people and their historical contributions. It ...

. He wrote: 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 Raphael Patai (Hebrew רפאל פטאי; November 22, 1910 − July 20, 1996), born Ervin György Patai, was a Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer, historian, Orientalist and anthropologist. Family background Patai was born in Budapest, Austria-Hu ...

's book ''

The Arab Mind ''The Arab Mind'' is a non-fiction cultural psychology book by Hungarian-born, Jewish cultural anthropologist and Orientalist Raphael Patai. He also wrote ''The Jewish Mind''. The book advocates a tribal-group-survival explanation for the driving ...

,'' which Marable described as "a book full of racially charged stereotypes and generalizations."Glick, Ted
2004 Racism Watch Calls for Action to End Use of Anti-Arab Books by the U.S. Government.
via PCDC (June 2, 2004). In a 2008 column, Marable endorsed Senator

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

's bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.Marable, Manning
"Story: Barack Obama's Problem - And Ours - Along the Color Line"
''Black Commentator'', March 6, 2008. Marable, who was diagnosed with

sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis (also known as ''Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease'') is a disease involving abnormal collections of inflammatory cells that form lumps known as granulomata. The disease usually begins in the lungs, skin, or lymph nodes. Less commonly af ...

, underwent a

double lung transplant Lung transplantation, or pulmonary transplantation, is a surgical procedure in which one or both lungs are replaced by lungs from a donor. Donor lungs can be retrieved from a living or deceased donor. A living donor can only donate one lung lobe. ...

as treatment in mid-2010.Kellogg, Carolyn
"Malcolm X biographer Manning Marable has died"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', April 1, 2011. Marable died of complications from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

on April 1, 2011, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at the age of 60.Rohter, Larry
"Manning Marable, African-American Studies Scholar, Has Died at 60"
''

'', April 1, 2011.

Malcolm X biography

Marable's biography of Malcolm X concluded that Malcolm X exaggerated his early criminal career, and engaged in a

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

relationship with a white businessman. He also concluded that some of the killers of Malcolm X are still alive and were never charged. 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. ''Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention'' was nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

, and ''

'' ranked it among the 10 Best Books of 2011. It was one of three nominees for the inaugural

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction __NOTOC__ The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were established in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year. They are named in honor of ni ...

(2012) presented by the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

for the best adult non-fiction. It was awarded the

in 2012.

Writings

* ''How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America'' (1983), * ''African and Caribbean Politics: From Kwame Nkrumah to Maurice Bishop'' (1987), * ''Race, Reform and Rebellion'' (1991), * ''Beyond Black and White: Transforming African American Politics'' (1995), * ''Speaking Truth to Power: Essays on Race, Resistance, and Radicalism'' (1996), * ''Black Liberation in Conservative America'' (1997), * ''Black Leadership'' (1998), * ''Let Nobody Turn Us Around'' (2000), * ''Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle'' (with Leith Mullings and Sophie Spencer-Wood, 2002), * ''The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life'' (2003), * ''W. E. B. DuBois: Black Radical Democrat'' (2005), * ''The Autobiography of Medgar Evers'' (2005, with

Myrlie Evers-Williams Myrlie Louise Evers-Williams (née Beasley; born March 17, 1933) is an American civil rights activist and journalist who worked for over three decades to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her husband Medgar Evers, another civil rights activist ...

), * '' Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention'' (2011), * ''Living Black History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America's Racial Future'' (2011), * ''The Portable Malcolm X Reader'' (2013, with Garrett Felber),

References

External links

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