Alexander Manly

Who was Alexander Manly?

Alexander L. Manly was notable as an African-American newspaper owner and editor in North Carolina in the late 19th century. With his brother Frank G. Manly as co-owner, he published the Daily Record, the state's only 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, at a time when 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 a 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, overturning the city government.