Effa Manley

Effa Louise Manley

• Born March 27, 1897 in Philadelphia, PA USA
• Died April 16, 1981 in Los Angeles, CA USA

Inducted into Hall of Fame in 2006

Biographical Information

Effa Manley, along with her husband Abe Manley, was co-owner of the Brooklyn Eagles (1935) and Newark Eagles (1936-1948). Effa was accepted as a fair-complexioned Negro even though she was actually white, because she grew up in a home with a black father. Effa met Abe at Yankee Stadium.

Manley took an active role in the team, serving as manager and scheduler. Sometimes she took too active a role, for instance in her having handsome pitcher Terris McDuffie start to show off to her girlfriends. Manley's affair with McDuffie led to her husband trading away the hurler to the New York Black Yankees.

When the major leagues started signing her players, she wanted compensation, but only Bill Veeck among the owners was willing to pay for the players.

She also was active in the local NAACP, serving as an officer for a period. On February 27, 2006, Manley became the first woman elected into the Hall of Fame by a Special Committee.

Further Reading

• William A. Cook: Lady Moguls: A History of Women Who Have Owned Major League Baseball Teams, Sunbury Press, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2015. ISBN 978-1-6200-6636-2
• Bob Luke: The Most famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues, Potomac Books Inc, Dulles, VA, 2011.
• Ariana Miguel: "Manley was pioneer for women in baseball", "The Negro Leagues", mlb.com, [1]
• James Overmyer: Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD, 1998.
• Andrew Williams: Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues, Roaring Brook Press, Macmillan Publishers, New York, NY, 2021. ISBN 9781250623720

Related Sites

• Effa Manley at the SABR Bio Project