Alexander Manly

Alexander (or Alex) L. Manly (1866–1944) was notable as an African-American newspaper owner and editor in Wilmington, North Carolina in the late 19th century. With his brother Frank G. Manly as co-owner, he published the Daily Record (Wilmington, North Carolina), the state's only daily African-American newspaper and possibly the nation's only black-owned daily newspaper. At the time, the port of Wilmington had 10,000 residents and was the state's largest city; its population was majority black, with a rising middle class.

In August 1898 Manly published a controversial editorial objecting to stereotypes of those black men who were ostensibly lynched for raping white women. He had earlier responded to a feminist woman in Georgia who wrote about African-American males having inappropriate relationships with white women. At this time, white Democrats were inflaming racial tensions and promoting white supremacy in a bid to regain power in the state legislature. They had lost control in the 1894 and 1896 elections to "fusion" candidates supported by a Republican and Populist coalition; these voters also elected Republican Daniel L. Russell as governor in 1896. When biracial fusionist candidates were elected to Wilmington's mayor and council, a secret committee of Democrats conducted the only coup d'état in United States history, now known as the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, and overturned the city government. They also ran the Manly brothers out of town, threatening their lives; a large mob destroyed the printing press and burned down the newspaper offices; out of control, it also attacked black neighborhoods, killing an estimated 30-100 persons and destroying much of what freedmen had built in the city.

The Manly brothers were among the 2100 African Americans who permanently moved out of Wilmington after the riot, resulting in its becoming a majority-white city. The brothers lived briefly to Washington, DC, helped by former Congressman George Henry White. He had moved to the city permanently after North Carolina passed legislation in 1899 to disenfranchise blacks in the state. Alex married Caroline Sadgwar at his house. The Manlys moved to Philadelphia, where they had a family. (Frank Manly moved to Alabama and taught at Tuskegee University.) Alex Manly never fully recovered from his losses, having to support his family as a painter. But, he was politically active, helping found The Armstrong Association, a precursor to the National Urban League, and was a member of the African-American newspaper council.

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