Manning Marable dead at 60

I was sorry to read yesterday that the preeminent scholar of Black American politics, Columbia professor Manning Marable, had succumbed to lung disease at the far too early age of 60.

In an obituary at The Root, his wife explained

"I think he would want to be remembered for having contributed to the black freedom struggle," said [Leith Mullings] Marable. "He would want to be remembered for being both a scholar and an activist and as someone who saw the two as not being separated. He believed that both [callings] went together and enhanced each other."

That seems exactly right. In the difficult fall of 2001 when opposing US wars of empire was a slightly scary stance, Marable lent his support to the peace activist project WarTimes/Tiempo de Guerras I still work with.

His biography of Malcolm X will be published on Monday. The book is supposed to be groundbreaking.