Effa Manley

Effa Louise Manley (née Brooks; March 27, 1897 – April 16, 1981) was an American sports executive. She co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues with her husband Abe Manley from 1935 to 1948. Throughout that time, she served as the team's business manager and fulfilled many of her husband's duties as treasurer of the Negro National League. In 2006, she posthumously became the first (and, as of August 2023, only) woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, chosen by the Special Committee on Negro Leagues for her work as an executive. Early life Manley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she attended school. In 1916, she graduated from Penn Central High School, completing vocational training there in cooking, oral expression and sewing. She entered the hatmaking business. Manley's racial background is not completely known. Her biological parents may have been white but she was raised by her black stepfather and her mother. The racial background of Manley's mother Bertha Cole Brooks (née Ford) is contested. Most books say Bertha was German, Effa claimed her maternal grandfather was Native American, but her maternal grandfather was German. Bertha is listed as black on many censuses and documents, however, this could have been due to census takers and biases. No African ancestry has been proven conclusively.