Manning Marable facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Manning Marable
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Marable in 2007
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William Manning Marable
May 13, 1950 Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
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| Died | April 1, 2011 (aged 60) New York City, New York, U.S.
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| Spouse(s) | Leith Mullings |
William Manning Marable (May 13, 1950 – April 1, 2011) was an important American professor, historian, and writer. He taught at Columbia University and focused on African-American Studies. He was known for his work on African-American history and for being active in political movements that aimed for social justice.
Manning Marable also started and led the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia. He wrote many books and was involved in many groups that worked for positive social change.
Just before he passed away, he finished a biography about the human rights activist Malcolm X. The book was called Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (2011). After his death, Marable was given the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History for this amazing book.
Contents
Manning Marable's Life and Work
Early Life and Education
Manning Marable was born and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. His parents both went to Central State University, which is a historically black university. His mother was a minister and had a Ph.D.
When he was 17, in April 1968, his mother asked him to cover the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. for a local black newspaper. He finished Jefferson Township High School soon after.
Marable earned his first degree from Earlham College in 1971. He then went on to get his master's degree in 1972 and his Ph.D. in history in 1976. He studied at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland.
His Work at Universities
Manning Marable taught at many different universities throughout his career. These included Smith College, Tuskegee University, University of San Francisco, Cornell University, and Ohio State University.
He also helped start the Africana and Hispanic Studies Program at Colgate University. At the University of Colorado at Boulder, he was the head of the Black Studies Department.
In 1993, Columbia University asked him to be the first director of their Institute for Research in African-American Studies. Later, he became a special professor of African-American Studies, history, and public affairs at Columbia.
Fighting for Change
Manning Marable believed in working for a better society. In 1979, he joined a group called the New American Movement (NAM). This group was made up of people who wanted to continue working for social change.
Later, NAM joined with another group to form the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Marable was chosen as one of the leaders of this new organization.
Marable also served as the Chair of the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS). He was on the board of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN). This group uses hip-hop music and culture to inspire social change. He was also part of the New York Legislature's Amistad Commission, which looked at how the slave trade was taught in schools.
Personal Life and Views
Manning Marable was married twice. His second marriage was to Leith Mullings, who is also a distinguished professor. They were married from 1996 until his death.
Marable was known for his critical views on Afrocentrism, which is a way of looking at history and culture from an African perspective.
In 2004, Marable spoke out against the U.S. military using a book called The Arab Mind. He said the book was "full of racially charged stereotypes." In 2008, he supported Senator Barack Obama's campaign to become president.
Marable had a health condition called sarcoidosis. In 2010, he had a double lung transplant as part of his treatment. Sadly, Manning Marable passed away on April 1, 2011, in New York City. He was 60 years old and died from complications related to pneumonia.
His Famous Book: Malcolm X
Manning Marable's biography of Malcolm X was a very important book. In his book, Marable suggested that Malcolm X might have made some parts of his early life sound more dramatic than they were. He also concluded that some of the people who killed Malcolm X were still alive and had never been charged.
Some people who reviewed the book felt that the focus on certain personal details of Malcolm X's life was not as important as Marable's deeper ideas about Malcolm's commitment to Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism is the idea of a global community for people of African descent.
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention was nominated for the National Book Award. The New York Times listed it as one of the 10 Best Books of 2011. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2012, which is a very prestigious award for books.
Manning Marable's Writings
Manning Marable wrote many books and essays during his career. Here are some of his notable works:
- 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
