Alexander (or Alex) Manly (1866-1944) was an African-American newspaper editor in North Carolina in the late 19th century and a descendant of North Carolina Gov. Charles Manly.

In 1895, he became the editor of the Wilmington Daily Record, the only African-American-owned daily newspaper in the United States in its time. Manly denounced lynching.

Alexander Manly's newspaper office was destroyed in the 1898 Wilmington race riots on November 10, 1898. He was forced to flee the city to escape being murdered by a bloodthirsty white mob. Manly relocated to Philadelphia, PA. Little is definitively known about his later life, but he is known to have helped found the Armstrong Association, a forerunner of the Urban League.

His papers and pictures of at least one of his two sons are in the archives at the University of North Carolina.

References

1. http://www.newsobserver.com/1370/story/512435.html "Lewin Manly: The injustice we never forget" Charlotte Observer and News & Observer story by Eric Frazier]
2. News & Observer: The Ghosts of 1898
3. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/0065/ UNC archive

External links

• Biography at "NC Election of 1898"
• Biographical Sketches from Official Report of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission
• North Carolina Historical Marker