Black Leadership [Hardcover]

Manning Marable (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231107463 | ISBN-13: 978-0231107464 | Publication Date: March 15, 1998 0

The history of the black struggle for civil rights and political and economic equality in America is tied to the strategies, agendas, and styles of black leaders. Marable examines different models of black leadership and the figures who embody them: integration (Booker T. Washington, Harold Washington), nationalist separatism (Louis Farrakhan), and democratic transformation (W.E.B. Du Bois).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This important work from noted Afro-American intellectual and Columbia University professor Manning Marable examines the "ideology, culture and politics" of black leaders. Marable's "analysis of black leadership in the twentieth century" concentrates on three traditions of black power: the accommodationist perspective characterized by Booker T. Washington, the nationalist-separatist slant advocated by Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and the ideology of democratic transformation championed by W.E.B. Du Bois. Black Leadership defines each of these positions, then dissects their flaws. Marable argues, for example, that Washington's political strategy led to the segregationist "Jim Crow" laws. Citing the aura of black separatist nationalism that underlined the Million Man March led by Farrakhan in 1996, Marable notes that "the social philosophy behind its agenda was deeply conservative and pessimistic about the likelihood that whites would ever recognize or respond to blacks' grievances." Other notable figures like Paul Robeson and Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, are discussed, and Marable ultimately posits that black leaders should align themselves with multicultural coalitions: "There is no monochromatic model for democratic social change in a pluralistic society." --Eugene Holley Jr. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Despite the title's promise, this collection of academic essays has a more limited goal, according to Columbia historian Marable (Race, Reform, and Rebellion): to "profile the ideas and leadership" of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Harold Washington and Louis Farrakhan. Actually, even that schematic seems strained, as Marable includes four essays about DuBois, and only one each about the other three. The essays on DuBois add up to an interesting precis of his multifaceted influence on black culture, his radical religious faith, his spur to Pan-Africanism and his "critique linking racism, war, and peace." The title also could have indicated Marable's incisive leftist analysis: Booker T. Washington's accommodationist strategy sacrificed black workers, he writes, while Chicago mayor Washington's reliance on personal charisma meant no organization could succeed him. While Farrakhan's "black fundamentalist nationalism" invokes conservative economics and alliances with the likes of Lyndon LaRouche, Marable sees the empowerment of black workers?within a reformed labor movement?as the best source of progressive politics beyond the Democratic Party and civil rights community.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (March 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231107463
• ISBN-13: 978-0231107464
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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