opinion
A tribute to historian manning marable
P
rofessor William Manning
Marable’s contributions to
African American history
remind all of us of how important
it is to get the best possible educa-
tion and then to use our education
to advance the cause of freedom,
justice, equality, and empower-
ment for all. This was the life and
the struggle of Dr. Manning
Marable. Manning was not only a
great analytical historian of the
plight of African people all over
the world, and in particular here in
the United States, but also my
longtime friend and comrade, who
was a diligent, consistent, thought-
provoking visionary and champi-
on of the liberation of the
oppressed.
We all mourn his untimely pass-
ing and pray for the spiritual sus-
tainability of his devoted family
through this period of bereave-
ment. I am dedicating my column
this week to the life and living
legacy of Dr. Manning Marable in
hope that among the millions of
young African Americans there
will be many who will be inspired
to take up Marable’s scholarly pen
to preserve his legacy and to con-
tinue to advance the progressive
cause of freedom.
To be a historian is a noble and
important profession. But, to be a
historian in the vein of Dr. Carter
G. Woodson, Dr. C. Eric Lincoln,
and Dr. John Hope Franklin is a
distinct honor. Professor Manning
Marable was a genius historian
e duCaTIon
s erVICes
Benjamin F.
Chavis Jr.
like Woodson, Lincoln, and
Franklin who dared to do unprece-
dented research, publish numerous
books, and to expose and chal-
lenge the complications and insid-
ious facts about the nature and his-
tory of human oppression. In
1983, Dr. Marable wrote the land-
mark book, How Capitalism
Underdeveloped Black America.
From 1991 to 2003, Marable
authored nine more books: Race,
Reform and Rebellion; On
Malcolm X: His Message &
Meaning; Beyond Black and
White; Speaking Truth to Power:
Essays on Race, Resistance, and
Radicalism; Black Liberation in
Conservative America; Black
Leadership; Let Nobody Turn Us
Around;
Freedom:
A
Photographic History of the
African American Struggle; and
The Great Wells of Democracy:
The Meaning of Race in American
Life.
It is interesting that today too
many of us still get too nervous
whenever we hear the “race” word
used. It is as if some of us are
ashamed to admit that our struggle
against racism and class discrimi-
nation still exists. Dr. Marable
was fearless in his social critique
of not only the issue of White
supremacy in all of its institution-
alized forms, but also he was crit-
ical on the issues of the growing
class stratifications within the
African American community that
either hindered or propelled con-
temporary grassroots struggles for
liberation. I have personally
known Dr. Manning Marable for
more than 30 years. He had a pas-
sion for the truth unabridged.
National Black Independent
Political Party (NBIPP) in the
early 1980’s and wrote weekly
columns, “Above the Color Line,”
for the National Black Newspaper
Publishers Association (NNPA).
He helped me to better understand
and to apply the universal princi-
ples of progressive thought of
W.E. B. Dubois while I was
Executive Director and CEO of
the NAACP in 1993-1994. Dr.
Marable supported the Million
Man March in 1995 and the
To be a historian is a noble and
important profession. But, to be a
historian in the vein of Dr. Carter G.
Woodson, Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, and Dr.
John Hope Franklin is a distinct honor
Manning Marable was a freedom
fighter who used his skill as a his-
torian to present the truth to peo-
ple who cried out for a better qual-
ity of life. In the Bible it says that
“The truth will set you free.”
Marable was about the task of set-
ting people free to the extent to
which people are given more of
the truth about their social, politi-
cal, and economic circumstances.
History informs us how we got to
where we are today.
Manning
worked on the
emerging
National African American
Leadership Summit (NAALS).
Professor Marable was a member
of the Hip-Hop Summit Action
Network (HSAN) Board of
Directors from 2001-2011 and
promoted
intergenerational
activism using hip-hop culture for
positive social change. NAACP
President and CEO Benjamin
Jealous stated, “Dr. Marable’s
contributions to the struggle for
freedom of African Americans
will never be forgotten.”
Dr. Manning Marable’s greatest
book, Malcolm X: A Life of
Reinvention, was released this
week just three days after he
died. Marble worked on this book
for 20 years or more. No doubt his
latest 600-page book will have a
dramatic impact on the public con-
sciousness about the leadership
and enduring legacy of Malcolm
X. Manning Marable was 60
years old, but leaves a lifetime of
historical scholarship and national
leadership that is so inspiring. The
penetrating and empowering spirit
of Marable’s intellectual discourse
is still very much alive in his fam-
ily, his graduate students at
Columbia University, and within
the masses of millions of African
Americans and others that he
touched with his unique scholar-
ship. Professor Marable’s wife,
Leith Mullings, said it best: “I
think his legacy is that he was both
a scholar and an activist. He
believes that history could be used
to inform the present and the
future.“ The pen is mightier than
the sword. Dr. Manning Marable
surely proved that to be true for
generations to come.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. is
Senior advisor to the Black
alliance for educational options
(Baeo) and President of
education
online
Services
Thousands are Being killed
W
hile
the
world’s atten-
T He C urrY
tion is fixed
primarily on turmoil in
r ePorT
Libya,
Syria,
and
Yemen, thousands of
George E.
Ivorians are being mur-
dered in fighting that pits
Curry
supporters of Côte
d’Ivoire
incumbent
President
Laurent
Gbagbo against chal-
lenger Alassane Ouattara. Both men claim
to have won the disputed election in a coun-
try already torn by a nine-year civil war.
President Obama, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and the United Nations
have recognized Ouattara as the duly elect-
ed president of Côte d’Ivoire, which is
French for Ivory Coast. What’s loosely
Recently the U.N. was
forced to acknowledge
that both sides have
been guilty of killing
civilians
referred to as the international community
has accused Gbagbo of assorted human
rights violations, including killing some of
his political opponents.
Recently, however, the U.N. was forced to
acknowledge that both sides have been
guilty of killing civilians. Aid workers said
that as many as 1,000 people were killed by
Ouattara’s forces in Duekoue, a Gbagbo
stronghold in western Côte d’Ivoire.
Amid conflicting reports coming out of
Abidjan, the commercial capital of the
country, it is difficult to know for certain
what is going on there. Charles Steele, Jr,,
former president of the
Southern
Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC) and I visited
Abidjan two months
ago and were stunned to
see how widespread
news reports failed to
mirror the reality we
witnessed
on
the
ground.
One-sided reporting is
reflected in reporters, who routinely refer to
Gbagbo as the nation’s “strongman” and
Ouattara as the “internationally recognized”
president. As I have written in this space,
few reporters have read the Ivorian consti-
tution that puts into place a two-step
process that determines how national lead-
ers are elected.
In the case of the disputed presidential
election, Ouattara was declared the winner
of a run-off on November 28, 2010 by the
Independent Electoral Commission, a deci-
sion that the U.S., France, and the European
Union cited as the basis of their support for
the challenger.
Considering the sharp political divisions
in Côte d’Ivoire, it is unlikely that either
Ouattara or Gbagbo could be an effective
leader under current circumstances.
Therefore, the so-called international com-
munity should stop favoring one candidate
over the other and instead call for an imme-
diate halt to the killing. Once that’s accom-
plished, a new election should be held with
each candidate obliged to honor the out-
come.
george e. Curry, former editor-in-chief of
emerge magazine and the nnPa news
Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator,
and media coach. he can be reached
through his web site, www.georgecurry.com
You
can
also
follow
him
at
www.twitter.com/currygeorge.
april 6, 2011 The Seattle Skanner Page 5