Sue Mingus was a journalist, writer, and publisher, who met Charles Mingus in New York in 1964. She published a literary, arts, and music magazine called Changes and began acting as Mingus’ manager, and shortly thereafter as his partner in running Jazz Workshop, a music publishing company he had created to maintain control over his music.

After Charles Mingus' death in 1979, Sue Mingus created and directed repertory ensembles that carry on the music of her late husband. The most well known is the Mingus Big Band, a New York institution, which since 1991 has performed weekly at Fez Under Time Cafe and Jazz Standard, with the Mingus Dynasty and the Mingus Orchestra in the rotation. In 1989, she produced Mingus’ monumental Epitaph in its premiere at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. She has produced numerous Grammy-nominated recordings with Mingus repertory bands, the 2011 Grammy-winning Mingus Big Band Live at Jazz Standard, and several unreleased Charles Mingus recordings.

Mingus’ documentation of her husband's body of work resulted in a sizable archive, the Charles Mingus Collection, now housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Sue Mingus has published educational books including, Charles Mingus: More than a Fake Book, and several Charles Mingus: More than a Play Alongs, distributed by Hal Leonard Publishers. Other publications include Mingus Big Band charts, a book of guitar charts, and a special series for students called “Simply Mingus.” In 2008, she founded the annual Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival, at the Manhattan School of Music and currently at the New School.

In 2002, Pantheon (Random House) released Sue's memoir of her life with Mingus entitled Tonight At Noon: A Love Story, which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. It was released in paperback by DaCapo press and has been translated into several languages.

Sue Mingus was the recipient of the 2023 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy honoring her contributions to the appreciation, knowledge, and advancement of the American jazz art form. The honorees will be celebrated at a public concert in Washington, DC, on Saturday, April 1, 2023, in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.