Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles

by James Overmyer

The first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, there was no one like Effa Manley in the sports world of the 1930s and 1940s. She was a sophisticated woman who owned a baseball team. She never shrank from going head to head with men, who dominated the ranks of sports executives and considered sports their exclusive domain. That her life story has remained unchronicled can only be attributed to one her team, the Newark Eagles, belonged to the Negro Baseball League.
This book furthers a growing awareness of black baseball before integration and profiles many of the other highly-competitive owners in the Negro league. It also describes a thriving black community in Newark that took the Newark Eagles into their hearts, creating a fascinating relationship between a community and their sports team.
This book was the first to draw extensively on Eagle team records, left behind by Mrs. Manley when she left Newark in the 1950s, and rediscovered nearly intact thirty-five years later. The files are the most comprehensive source of information about the Newark Eagles. They reconstruct the relationship between the baseball team and the community to an extent never thought to be possible. Also included is material from Mrs. Manley's scrapbook chronicling her days as a baseball owner and an active home front volunteer during World War II. Her scrapbook is now part of the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

This important work shines the spotlight on a previously unsung segment of baseball history.
Originally published in cloth as Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles , No. 1 in the American Sports History Series .

Reviews of the Original
" ...a book that speaks volumes about the history of all of us who grew up in Newark at a time when the city stood for something very different. It's a dandy read. " ―NEWARK STAR-LEDGER
" ...the story of a dynamic woman who, with her husband, owned the New Jersey team in the Negro National League.... Recommended. " ―LIB

Genres: Baseball, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Sports, American History, African American

298 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

...maybe men shouldn't write biographies about women 🤷‍♀️. Instead of using her work as a way to explore the growth and ultimate demise of the negro league, she was rather used as a framing device to focus on primarily the league. There are only so many times where an author can be like.... and she was a woman, without analyzing what that might have meant as a woman who had an ambiguous racial background in the mid-twentieth century and that sort of thought was not there.

[Daryl Grigsby]

this is a fascinating detailed look at the interplay between negro league baseball as a business, a cultural resource, entertainment, political equality, black capitalism, and a statement about human dignity. not to mention the powerful statement for women's equality made by a female owner in the Negro Leagues

[M. Low · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great exploration of the Queen Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues.

[Jessica Fellows · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing book. When the books main character is in the title of the book you would think you would find her mentioned more than a few times in a chapter. Over and over you start a chapter, that is many pages long I will add and it’s not until say page 4 when her name even comes up. This book was not about Effa Manley but the battles and struggles of the Negro Leagues. That’s a fine topic if that’s what you want to write about but don’t mislead your readers the way you did.