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obituary Malcolm X Scholar Manning Marable Dies at 60 cristian Salazar the associated Press neW York (AP) — Manning Marable, an influ- ential historian whose forth- coming Malcolm X biogra- phy could revise percep- tions of the slain civil rights leader, died Friday, just days before the book described as his life’s work was to be released. He was 60. His wife, Leith Mullings, said Marable died from complications of pneumo- nia at New York- Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. She said he had suffered for 24 years from sarcoidosis, an inflammato- ry lung disease, and had undergone a double lung transplant in July. “I think his legacy is that he was both a scholar and an activist,” she said. “He believed that history could be used to inform the pres- Photo BY SuSan frieD ent and the future.” She said Marable’s latest book, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” will be released Monday. Two decades in the mak- ing, the nearly 600-page biography is described as a re-evaluation of Malcolm X’s life, bringing fresh insight to subjects including his autobiography, which is still assigned in many col- lege courses, to his assassi- nation at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan on Feb. 21, 1965. The book is based on exhaustive research, includ- ing thousands of pages of FBI files and records from the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department. Marable also conducted interviews with the slain civil rights leader’s confidants and security team, as well as witnesses to his assassination. Blair Kelley, a history professor at North Carolina State University, called Marable’s death a “devas- tating” loss for black histo- rians. “I can’t believe he died before the book came out. He really deserved the opportunity to be celebrated for his groundbreaking scholarship,” Kelley wrote on Twitter. “He touched so many of us as an activist, Winning Businesses MillerCoors announced the winners of its 2010-11 urban Entrepreneurs Series and Business Plan Competition this week. Recipients won business grants totaling $150,000 at a special reception held at the MillerCoors corporate headquarters in Chicago. This year's grand prize winner, Back to the Roots, received a $100,000 business grant, with the four runners-up each receiving grants of $25,000 to contribute to their company's start-up capital, or to expand their existing businesses. Pictured above are (back row from left ) Jerome Young, MBA Power Attract Jobs Now; Randal Pinkett, keynote speaker; Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez, Back To The Roots; (front row from left) Jesse Cerda and Nancy Nkansah, Ncapsul; Terethia Waller, The Benson Mills Group; Christie Blackwell and Quiana Corde, Barazzo; and Joanne Tabellija-Murphy and Larry Waters, MillerCoors. For more information about the upcoming 2011-12 MuES competition, visit: www.millercoorsmues.com. scholar, historian, political scientist, publisher, mentor. Truly a great man.” Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in a statement that Marable’s “contribu- tions to the struggle for freedom of African Americans will never be forgotten.” “Dr. Marable brought one of the keenest intellects of our age to the contemporary conversation on race in America,” he said. Born in Dayton, Ohio, on May 13, 1950, Marable wrote in his book, “Speaking Truth to Power,” that he was born into the era that witnessed the emer- gence of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as nonviolent move- ments in the South strug- gling to break the back of white supremacy. But he was the child of middle-class black Americans, he wrote, his father a teacher and busi- nessman, his mother an edu- cator and college professor. He watched from afar as blacks in the South rebelled against segregation and racial inequality, and as a teenager found his emergent political voice writing columns for a neighborhood newspaper. He wrote that his mother encouraged him to attend King’s funeral “to witness a significant event in our peo- ple’s history.” He served as the local black newspaper’s correspondent, he wrote, and marched along with thousands of others during the funeral procession. “With Martin’s death, my childhood abruptly ended,” he wrote. “My understand- ing of political change began a trajectory from reform to radicalism.” Marable followed a schol- arly path but turned toward progressive politics to help shape his understanding of the world and his people. He wrote hundreds of papers and nearly 20 books, including the landmark “How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America,” published in 1983. At Columbia University, where he was a professor, he was the founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies and established the Center for Contemporary Black History. Besides his wife of 15 years, he is survived by three children and two stepchildren. aP national writer Jesse washington in Philadelphia contributed to this report. Caldwell’s, Hennessey, Goetsch & McGee Funeral Home Von D. Bailey Funeral Director 20 NE 14th Avenue Portland, OR 97232 503-232-4111 Fax 503-231-1586 von.bailey@sci-us.com Page 6 The Portland and Seattle Skanner april 6, 2011
