Marable's passion provides resources for worthy students

Ask Manning Marable '71 why he supports student scholarships, and he'll tell you that his inspiration comes from his own opportunities and experiences.

"All donors — large givers like Warren Buffet and smaller ones like Manning Marable — draw off life experience," he said.

Manning's father was a small business owner and his mother was a college professor. Even though their family was considered middle-class in their Dayton, Ohio-area neighborhood, they didn't have the resources to fully fund their two sons' college educations. Manning took it upon himself to make his college dreams possible — working in a warehouse during the summer break from Earlham, unloading boxcars with a crowbar. He received modest amounts of financial aid, but paid most of his tuition with his wages.

Upon graduating from Earlham a full year early, Manning applied for and was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship — five years of fully-funded tuition, allowances for books and assistance with housing to any college he wanted to attend. This opportunity he received in 1971 still motivates him today, to create similar chances for deserving Earlham College students.

"Genius is found everywhere," Manning explained. "Maybe in economically deprived neighborhoods, or houses without two parents, or a school district that isn't competitive. But even here we find young women and men of intelligence who are dedicated to hard work, who only lack the opportunity to succeed."

Manning's opportunity led him through his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and his doctorate at the University of Maryland. It helped give him the foundation necessary to reach his current position as founding director for the Center for Contemporary Black History and professor at Columbia University.

This isn't the first time that life experiences have influenced Manning's important choices. His decision to study history, he says, was the result of his mother's experiences as an undergraduate at Wilberforce University, when the college split to create a second school — Central State University.

"My mother, June Marable, attended Wilberforce but worked as a housekeeper for Charles H. Wesley, who was president of Central State," Manning began.

"Wesley was a historian, and she had great respect for him and said that if she had children, one of them would be a historian, too. So, I was trained to be who I am — I was given history books for Christmas and my birthday, and I loved it."

His choice to concentrate specifically on black history was the result of his experience witnessing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral while covering it for his local black newspaper. Likewise, Manning's first encounter with Earlham College set his life on the path to where it is today.

"I applied to only three colleges: Harvard, Oberlin and Earlham," he said. "I liked the idea of a smaller liberal arts college where people would know you and you wouldn't get lost in the crowd.

"I was accepted to both Earlham and Oberlin, so I decided to drive to Earlham's campus with my dad in December 1967. We walked over to where Runyan Center would be. It was just a big ditch back then, under construction, but I could see what it would become. We spent two-and-a-half hours talking to students and dropping in on administrators without an appointment. But I left with a sense that I was envisioning a community. I suppose I was predisposed to appreciating Quakerism even then."

Manning has been a part of that community ever since that visit inspired him to enroll in the fall of 1968. He has returned to campus many times over the years, as a member of the African American Advisory Board, recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award and guest lecturer for a convocation in 2007.

But one of his most significant ties to Earlham is that of donor. Manning's decision to support scholarships at Earlham will change the lives of the students who benefit from that generosity, which is exactly what he wants.

"I think the root of my passion for providing resources for worthy students is my belief that all Americans deserve opportunity if they are disciplined and dedicated. Those who have been fortunate in life have an obligation to assist them."