i wish manning marable could have been here. manning marable was prepared for the controversy. i learned that in conversations with him. he loved malcolm x like few other people. he loved the meaning of the man. he loved his historical significance. he loved his revolutionary potential and practice and he had to face up to the fact that as a historian and intellectual and scholar he had to tell the truth the best he could the best he understood it. the power and beauty of this book is is rendered in such accessible and eloquent prose and engage in a broad spectrum and continue a of scholarly data. it takes account of non accessed data about malcolm and wrestles with the story of an iconic figure who meant so much to varying and competing contradictory constituents. manning marable had a difficult job to do. similar to spike lee doing his film with the fire and the heat of various constituencies figuring out what to make of this man that we love. even more so because this tries to grapple with significance of malcolm x it is an enormous work. i believe his magnum opus, that is s

was doing. -- what manning marable was doing. sonia sanchez was able to see what was done. the book was written because of -- [inaudible] the written because manning marable wanted to -- [inaudible] about malcolm, and he personally -- [inaudible] >> all right, thank you. >> thank you, dr. ben. thank you. thank you. [applause] zaheer. >> um, thank you so much, dr. ben. to the previous question about socialization, and be i think, um, again this comes back to the point of no one occurs or comes of being in isolation including great people. and it's important to understand that if we want more malcolms to be produced, they're not just going to pop out, and they're not just going to come out of the prisons and be malcolm, they're just not, you know? the social context that we provide for our children and for people's development is incredibly critical. malcolm as a child, his mother read him newspaper articles from the negro world newspaper which was marcus -- [inaudible] what are we reading your children? you cannot be teaching your

marable -- or dr. marable's book, how does his portrayal of malcolm x help in that conversation of the policing of the boundaries of blackness and black nationalism and its potential as a framework for political advancement of black people in this country? >> okay. great. [applause] >> well, i think i wanted to go to the question that the woman asked who saw the people on the light rail and actually reminds us of the earlier question i think we didn't answer about this theme that can see out of the book. i'm not one to give people universal themes out of books 'cause i think that's the fun of reading it that you discover itself but i think i understand what do you mean about the question and also what i hear maybe a little bit of anxiety about malcolm. and i want to say a couple things. i'm very happy to say your children will realize that's why you're great because right now that's not happening with my kids so i'm hoping that will happen. wonderful news. [laughter] >> but i do think that -- i underst

when we of originally brought manning marable we could as you imagine very excited to have him here in baltimore and to hear him discuss his much anticipated landmark book. we were heartbroken when we heard he became ill and then later passed away just days before the monumental book was released but we still want to honor him and his book and his wife. so thanks to a lifelong supporter and a board member we arrived at this agent to night and we are honored to have the people we have on our panel tonight. we know it's going to be a great tribute but before we get started, we have a very special guest we want to invite to come up to say a few words, manning marable's stepdaughter. [applause] >> to the rest of my family i'd like to welcome you to this wonderful event. i'm happy to see so many of you here to honor him and his legacy. she would be pleased to know how many people cared about him, inspiration and work and truth in his scholarship. his last project was a ten year labor of love. when i had the time to go back to new york my first question was about his health and the second wa

i remember the night that the news came out that manning marable had passed away as in ann arbor michigan where i had never been before, that giving a talk about slavery and reparations at university of michigan. the woman who is hosting me was the person who told me about it. she teaches at the university of michigan in the last school in the afro-american studies department, a white woman and she immediately began to tell me about how manning marable had mentored her in new york. i didn't find it surprising to simmer in the heartland somebody was telling the story because of his tremendous influence. before i jump into talking about malcolm x come i want to say for me a good deal is that he wrote it. i would secondly say it's also significant that unfortunately released, but that this evening and others like it are important. i remember when the mother of emmett till died, she also had a boat she agreed to and she died it would unshredded week before out.ook came most of you have never read it because she was allied to do the publicity. it's a powerfully important book about what happen

up next, the panel discussion of the late manning marables discussion of the recent " malcolm x." >> there's a book about machiavelli that's sitting on my desk that came out several weeks ago. i want to read that book about machiavelli. and then there's a book called "reckless" which is about what went on in terms of the financial crisis in the country and what led up to it and involved two local businesses, freddie mac and fannie mae. so i have -- i know lots of players. i'm curious to read and find out what happened there. and then there's some thing that is i want to go back and read. you know there was recently a controversy about huck finn. and the use of the n word. and there was a professor who took it out of the text. and this sparked a controversy about sanitizing american history or in the context of my own book, sort of politically correct speech code and how inappropriate it was given the fact that mark twain, samuel clemons wrote it with the power of that word intended. so i want to just take a look at what the sanitized, if you will, text looks like. i've picked up that