“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>I think about and write this column a week in advance. I had planned to assess the local election and critique the potential shutdown of the US government due to the incompetence of Congress. Then Manning Marable died; those two elements looked very insignificant.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>It was a crushing moment as it is always is whenever you lose a warrior in the struggle for human rights. Your mind tends to reflect: Of all the people trying to make this chaotic world a better place, why him or her?
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>In 1976 at the young age of 26, Manning launched his syndicated column, Along the Color Line. It appeared in over 400 newspapers worldwide free of charge because he wanted it to be as accessible as possible. About ten years ago, I called Manning to ask about syndication of my own column. He took time to explain the many pros and the few cons of syndication. I never quite made the leap to national syndication but I definitely appreciated his thoughts on the matter.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>I first met Manning through the Black Radical Congress (BRC). He was part of a core group of five people who initially put the draft ideas of such as formation in place. The core included his wife Leith Mullings, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Barbara Ransby and Abdul Akalimat. Manning’s energy and wisdom helped to launch the national organization in 1998 after two years of planning and dialog. He was equally committed to building a local BRC chapter in his home city of New York. The organization enjoyed his talents and skills up until 2001 when Manning stepped back because of health concerns and his intent to step up the work on his book on Malcolm X.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>When I found out that Manning had been diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disease I have never heard of, he patiently explained it to me. His assuring voice and optimism calmed my anxieties although I would later do some research on the condition to deeper my own understanding. Yes, the disease that affects the body’s lymph nodes often goes into remission and there are many people who suffer few or no long term problems. For others, it will ultimately start affecting those nodes attacking the lungs, brain and heart. Rarely, sarcoidosis can be fatal. Death usually is the result of complications with the lungs, heart, or brain. I realized how serious this thing could get but for a number of years, Manning was able to function normally. Last summer, the disease forced Manning to have a lung transplant that we all thought would improve his life chances.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>What seemed to be so terribly unfair in this scenario is that Manning made his transition three days before his seminal life’s work was A Life of Reinvention” represented almost twenty years of painstaking research into one of this country’s most profound leaders. The book peels back many layers of Malcolm X and the organizations that shaped him–the Nation of Islam and the Organization for African Unity. Some of those revelations are not too flattering and are sure to bring some heat to the book.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>I think it was the light that Manning so desperately sought in the man, Malcolm X in order that we have a better, fuller understanding. The ironic timing of his death before the book splashed on the scene is that I know Manning was looking forward to the lively debates that would be forthcoming. In his review of the book in the Financial Times, Wilbert Rideau, stated that some of the details about the Nation of Islam or even the later chapters about Malcolm’s life were “excessive” and took away from the story. I can see Manning now, poised to explain the why’s, what’s and who’s in his nearly 600 page journey based upon meticulous study of FBI files, court transcripts, films, interviews and articles. Knowing Manning, there is a rhyme and reason for every word that’s in that book.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>Manning never let his academic credentials or his tenure at the prestigious Columbia University get in the way of his relationships with people. He was just as comfortable in a discussion with a fellow scholar as he was with a prisoner. In fact, he taught classes in hip-hop culture and criminology inside Riker’s Island Correctional Facility as well as lectured in the Master’s Degree program for prisoners at Sing Sing Prison. We both shared a passion for the work of prisoners’ rights and talked about the need to lift up the rotting geniuses inside U.S. prisons as a crime against humanity.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>Manning’s body of work on race relations, culture and politics is his great legacy. Those who had the privilege and opportunity to interact with him will always be inspired by his principled and humane approach to social and political relationships.
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