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Dayton-born scholar, author dies days before book’s release

William ‘Manning’ Marable taught at Columbia university.

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By Christopher Magan, Staff Writer Updated 3:22 PM Sunday, April 3, 2011

Dayton native William “Manning” Marable, who rose to become a prominent Columbia University scholar of black history and race relations, died Friday in New York City just days before his much-anticipated biography of Malcolm X will be released. He was 60.

Mr. Marable died of complications of pneumonia after struggling with pulmonary disease for years and having a lung transplant in 2010, according to his younger sister, Madonna Marable of Dayton. A private funeral service will be held for Mr. Marable in New York City on April 12, with a public memorial to be scheduled later this spring.

Mr. Marable grew up in Dayton, attended Jefferson Twp. High School and was a civil rights activist from a young age, Madonna remembered. “What do I remember about my brother? He always spoke the truth,” she said. “He was wise beyond his years.”

Eleven years Mr. Marable’s junior, his sister remembers him traveling to Atlanta to attend Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral in 1968 as a high school senior. “He often told a story about him being the first person there at Ebenezer Baptist Church and watching the sun come up,” she said. “It made an impact on him.”

Mr. Marable’s parents, James and June, were both Central State University graduates, and among other ventures helped publish a local black newspaper. They encouraged Mr. Marable’s activism and writing, going so far as to help publish his early work.

“He just flourished,” Madonna said. “My dad was very involved in the civil rights movement. My father and my brother were very close and as a junior high and high school student he became an activist.”

After graduation, Mr. Marable attended Earlham College and the University of Maryland, earning a doctorate. He taught at the University of Colorado and Ohio State University before taking a post at Columbia University.

Mr. Marable had fond memories of his youth in Dayton, his sister said. She and their mother still live in the city, and Mr. Marable last visited in 2008 to attend his father’s funeral.

His “life’s work” was the forthcoming “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” which will be published Monday by Viking Press, Madonna said. The book is expected to expose new controversial details about Malcolm X’s life and assassination in 1965.

“He was prepared to drop this bombshell,” Madonna said, of the book a decade in the making. “He was really looking forward to blowing the covers off, exposing and unveiling the truth surrounding Malcolm X’s death. He was very excited.”

Contact this reporter at (937)

225-2342 or cmagan@Dayton DailyNews.com.

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