Effa Louise Manley (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 1946 and was sole owner through 1948 after his death on December 9, 1952. 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. She was the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.\n', '

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.\n', '

Manley\'s racial background is not completely known. It has been written her biological parents may have been white (her mother was black, albeit fair-skin) but she was raised by her black stepfather and white mother (Bertha Cole, was in fact black) , leading most to assume her stepfather was her biological father and therefore to classify her as black. Daryl Russell Grigsby wrote, "...some insist she was a white woman exposed to black culture, who identified as black. Regardless of her ethnic origins, Effa Manley thought of herself as a black woman and was perceived by all who knew her as just that.":p.55 Author Ted Schwarz wrote, "She was a white woman who passed as a black...She could stay in any hotel she desired."\n', '

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