Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics.

• Author: McKissack, Fred

When I was asked to write a review of Manning Marable's latest book, had to chuckle. My first full-time job in journalism was with the St. Louis American, a venerable paper that covered the African-American community in St. Louis. It is also one of the 280 newspapers around the country that carry Manning Marable's social and political commentary, "Along the Color Line."

To tell the truth, I hated Marable back then, in the fall of 1992. 1 had to, on occasion, type his entire commentary into the computer, and Marable likes to write long. Real long. No 700-word op-ed knock-off for him. No, Marable had to go into great detail, several pages front and back, about why he'd taken a stance on one subject or another.

"Who's going to do Manning?" Greta, the editorial assistant, would say when she saw the letter in the mail. Poor Greta, it usually fell on her shoulders to have to do Manning.

All I can remember about his columns was that I didn't particularly pay attention. I was too busy cursing him because I had my own stories to write, and I didn't have a lot of time to waste.

I now wish I had paid more attention. Of all the black intellectuals that the media use as "go-to" pundits, Marable is probably one of the least utilized but most valuable. Yes, his work does tend to become ponderous and academic, full of history and facts, but you'd be hard-pressed to fault his analysis or the sincerity of his writing. He argues tirelessly not just for better days for black America, but for Americans in general.

Beyond Black and White is a collection of Marable's essays written between 1991 and 1995. Marable offers critical analysis on several subjects and events, including Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court and the Los Angeles riots.

"The main thesis of the book is that `race' as it has been understood within American society is being rapidly redefined, along with the basic structure of the economy, with profound political consequences for all segments and classes," Marable writes in the preface. He writes about the need to make alliances with Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, working people, gays and lesbians - all who are shut out or run down.

But this book is also about the crisis of African-American leadership since the modern civil-rights movement. In the essays of the book's second part, entitled "African-American Leadership: Society, Education, and Political Changes," Marable analyzes three strains within the black...