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
e Ducation
S erviceS
Benjamin F.
Chavis Jr.
Marable was a genius historian
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
History informs us how we got to
where we are today.
Manning worked on the emerg-
ing 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
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
more than 30 years. He had a pas-
sion for the truth unabridged.
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.
the NAACP in 1993-1994. Dr.
Marable supported the Million
Man March in 1995 and the
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
Thousands killed in Ivory Coast as World Looks On
W
hile the world’s attention
is fixed primarily on tur-
moil in Libya, Syria, and
Yemen, thousands of Ivorians are
being murdered in fighting that
pits supporters of Côte d’Ivoire
incumbent President Laurent
Gbagbo
against
challenger
Alassane Ouattara. Both men
claim to have won the disputed
election in a country already torn
by a nine-year civil war.
President
Obama,
French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and the
United Nations have recognized
Ouattara as the duly elected presi-
dent of Côte d’Ivoire, which is
t he c urrY
r ePort
George E.
Curry
mer 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 wit-
Recently the U.N. was forced to
acknowledge that both sides have
been guilty of killing civilians
French for Ivory Coast. What’s
loosely referred to as the interna-
tional 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,, for-
nessed on the ground.
One-sided reporting is reflected
in reporters, who routinely refer to
Gbagbo as the nation’s “strong-
man” and Ouattara as the “interna-
tionally recognized” president. As
I have written in this space, few
reporters have read the Ivorian
constitution that puts into place a
two-step process that determines
how national leaders are elected.
Under Article 32 and Article 94
of the Ivorian constitution, ballots
are tallied and results are
announced by the Independent
Electoral Commission. The sec-
ond and less publicized step is the
final declaration of winners made
by the Constitutional Council, the
equivalent of the United States
Supreme Court.
In the case of the disputed presi-
dential election, Ouattara was
declared the winner of a run-off on
November 28, 2010 by the
Independent
Electoral
Commission, a decision that the
U.S., France, and the European
Union cited as the basis of their
support for the challenger.
Pierre Sane, the Paris-based for-
mer general secretary of Amnesty
International, notes that the so-
called Independent Electoral
Commission is anything but inde-
pendent. Of the 31 members, 20
are from rebel groups and their
political supporters.
“One way or the other,
the‘Independent Commission’ is
in point of fact controlled by the
opposition,” Sane wrote in an
analysis. “Its chairman is a senior
member of the opposition coali-
tion, and a former PDCI minister
in the Gbagbo cabinet.”
three are appointed by the presi-
dent
of
the
National
Assembly. Sarkozy should be one
of the last people to complain
because, as he knows, the Ivorian
constitution is modeled after the
French constitution.
In a January interview with me,
Gbagbo said the Ivorian judicial
system is not unlike the one in the
U.S. where the president appoints
Supreme Court justices, subject to
Senate confirmation.
On March 9, when most of the
world was looking at dramatic
events in Libya, President Obama
issued a three-paragraph statement
deploring violence in Côte
d’Ivoire that he blamed on “secu-
rity forces loyal to former
President Laurent Gbagbo.”
He added, “As we have said
since the election results in Côte
d’Ivoire were certified, the people
of Côte d’Ivoire elected Alassane
Ouattara as their President and
Laurent Gbagbo lost the elec-
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
After examining challenged bal-
lots, the Constitutional Council
declared Gbagbo the winner by a
margin of 51.45 percent to 48.55.
Sarkozy, among others, cried
foul because of the seven justices,
four are appointed by Gbagbo and
tion. Former President Gbagbo’s
efforts to hold on to power at the
expense of his own country are an
insult to the universal rights of his
people, and the democracy that
Côte d’Ivoire deserves… It is time
for former President Gbagbo to
heed the will of his people, and to
complete a peaceful transition of
power to President Ouattara.”
President Obama is wrong. It’s
time for the United States, France,
and even some African countries
to stop trying to force their will on
a sovereign country. Democracy
can often be a messy process and
the U.S. can’t intervene in every
country that elects a leader it
opposes. Clearly, mistakes have
been made by supporters of both
Gbagbo and Ouattara. Regardless
of which side one favors, Ivorians
followed their constitution in
choosing Gbagbo over his chal-
lenger and that process should be
respected.
Considering the sharp political
divisions in Côte d’Ivoire, it is
unlikely that either Ouattara or
Gbagbo could be an effective
leader under current circum-
stances. Therefore, the so-called
international community should
stop favoring one candidate over
the other and instead call for an
immediate
halt
to
the
killing. Once that’s accomplished,
a new election should be held with
each candidate obliged to honor
the
outcome.
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 Portland Skanner Page 5