1897-1981
Effa Manley owned the Newark Eagles, championship winning Negro Leagues team with her husband Abraham Manley. She was very active in the running of the baseball team. There are several books written about her life including James Overmeyer’s “Queen of the Negro Leagues”.
The Newark News wrote in 1942, “There is little she doesn’t know about the game and probably could handle a team on the playing field, as well as conduct the office end of the business”. The Miami News called her “one of the little known powers behind the Black league.”
Born in Philadelphia, she came to Newark after marrying Abraham Manley in 1935. The couple lived at 55 Somerset Ave (1940) and 71 Crawford St (1950).
Upon her death in 1981, her archives were found in her house and donated to the Newark Library.
Bibliography
Effa Manley Papers Newark Public Library https://archive.org/details/npleagles
Ratner, Willie “Punching the Bag” Newark News Feb 13, 1942
Overmeyer, James. (1993). Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles.
Overmeyer, James. (2020). Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles.
Luke, Bob. (2011). The first woman in baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues.
Oral history: https://nunncenter.net/ohms-spokedb/render.php?cachefile=1977oh079_chan041_ohm.xml
Photo from Newark Library
“She’s Still Swinging” Newark News Sept 4, 1949
Dymond, Rich. “Effa Maney: Power in Black Baseball” Miami News May 19, 1981
“Effa Manley Dies at 81” Star Ledger Apr 27, 1981
“Jerry Izenberg at Large: Time Remembered” Star Ledger Apr 26, 1981