Correspondence, 1940-05

Correspondence comprises the bulk of the Newark Eagles records, making this the largest series in the collection. The over 3,000 letters in this series, which include incoming and copies of outgoing correspondence to and from Effa Manley, provide a rich record of the organization and management of a Negro League baseball team. The correspondence also offers insights regarding Effa Manley, individual players, relationships between other owners and booking agents, African-American life in Newark during the war years, and the integration of baseball from the point of view of the Negro Leagues.

The majority of the correspondence is related to the routine business of running a baseball team and follows a somewhat regular schedule. In the winter and early spring the correspondence details arrangements for spring training and often includes letters from players needing an advance or travel money. Among the topics early in each year are rounding up former players, recruiting new ones, responding to unknown ball players seeking tryouts and signing contracts; equipping and outfitting the team; and scheduling games. Also during these months Manley often heard from Bill “Yank” Yancey, a former Brooklyn Eagles player who, upon retirement, coached teams in Panama and acted as an informal scout for the Eagles. During spring training she would get regular updates from road secretary Eric Illidge. Over the summer there would be much correspondence about the logistics and promotion of games, and by the fall correspondence would wane.

In April, although Manley would still be finalizing contracts and trades, and working on schedules, she also was gearing up for Opening Day in Newark. While other teams settled for a double header to open the season, Manley believed in an opening day with “fan fare [sic] and color” (May 1946). She sent invitations to local and state politicians, and lined up an “outstanding negro, preferably an athlete” (Apr 16-30, 1943) to throw the first pitch. Over the years she arranged for track standout John Borican, and boxers Henry Armstrong and Beau Jack, among others, for that first throw. In 1941 Manley invited the entire 372nd Infantry Regiment — an African-American regiment— to be her guests for opening day. She arranged for the New Jersey State Police to escort the regiment from Fort Dix to Newark and ordered box lunches for the troops. The Attucks [Color] Guard of Newark’s American Legion Emmitt Guyton Post #152 was always present for opening day, as was at least one band. Music might be provided by the band from Newark’s first African-American Catholic parish, Queen of Angels or the Pride of Newark Drum and Bugle Corps.

Much of the correspondence in the collection is with booking agents, and with owners and managers of other teams. This correspondence underscores the shifting alliances among owners over conflicts related to booking venues and payments of booking fees, shares of profits from games, trades and contracts, lobbying for commissioners, hiring umpires, professionalism within the league, and general business of the teams and leagues. Regular correspondents included, among others, booking agents Abe Saperstein and William Leuschner; owners of Negro National League teams Ed Gottlieb (also a booking agent), Gus Greenlee, Cum Posey, James Semler, and Tom Wilson; and president of the Negro American League Dr. J. B. Martin.

Manley sparred with other members of the league over how best to stem the tide of players who left for more lucrative opportunities with Mexican and Latin American teams. She took umbrage when Satchel Paige was not signed with the Eagles: “You know I informed the entire Membership of both Leagues that I was going to use Satchell this year, as he belongs to me, and I agreed to take him back together along with all the other Members who agreed to take the jumping players back for the last time.” (Apr 15, 1940). A telegram Paige sent Manley, asking her to contact him (May 31, 1940), marked the beginning of an intermittent correspondence between the two of them.

Manley also corresponded with the press. In April of 1940, before the start of the season, she organized a sports writers get-together. She thanked the press when the coverage was good, but also contacted them when she disagreed with their coverage of the Eagles and the NNL. Among those with whom she corresponded were sports writers Oliver “Butts” Brown, Dave Hawkins, and Sherman “Jocko” Maxwell, who was also a sports announcer and the home announcer for Eagles games.

With the advent of World War II, the themes of the correspondence changed. Fuel rationing limited bus travel, fabric shortages affected the quality of uniforms and Manley’s fundraising shifted to efforts supporting the troops, especially African-American troops.The biggest challenge, however, was assembling a team when so many of the players were in the service. In a letter to “Biz" Mackey Manley wrote: “Imagine a team losing Doby, Parks, Isreal, Day, Manning, Irvin, Richardson and Brown and being able to carry on. … [Monte Irvin] is in England, and wishes he was here for the start of the season. He don’t wish it half as hard as I do” (Feb 1944). Manley corresponded with several team members in the service including Max Manning, Charles Parks, Clarence Isreal, Larry Doby, Leon Ruffin, and Monte Irvin. She sent boxes of candy to them at Christmas and also offered a subscription to one of the “colored papers” to all the Eagles’ “boys” in the service (Aug 1944). Manley also helped players not in the service, or before they had been drafted, writing letters of recommendations for Len Pearson, Willie Wells and Leon Day, among others, to help them obtain work in defense plants (Sep 1942).

Manley could be supportive of players and their families. She gave advances to players in need, sent money directly out of paychecks to at least two players’ wives, Doretha Brown and Mary Hill, who had young children (Jun 1942 and May 1944), and offered to find housing for Haywood Cozart, his wife and family (Apr 1943). In an emergency she was quick to wire funds, as was the case when team manager Dick Lundy needed money to pay for his mother’s funeral (Nov 1945). Among the Eagles players represented in the correspondence are James “Jimmie” Hill, Haywood Cozart, Larry Doby, Len Pearson, Monte Irvin, Dick Lundy, Clarence “Pint” Isreal, Charles E. Parks, and Max Manning among others. She may have corresponded with James “Jimmie” Hill more than any other player. Hill always seemed to need money, be in trouble with the law or have problems with his marriage. Early in 1944 Manley doled out extensive marriage advice to Hill, her “problem child,” along with a ticket to Newark (Jan-Feb 1944).

Manley also expected much from her team. She castigated players who did not show up on time for spring training. Those who left or tried to leave to play for Mexican teams or in other foreign leagues, were threatened with fines, suspensions or legal actions. At one point, when it looked like Len Pearson and Monte Irvin were trying to leave the country to play in foreign leagues, she turned them both in to their respective draft boards (May 1942). Manley also went directly to family members to make her case. She warned Thelma Wells, wife of Willie Wells, that there would be consequences if Wells left the Eagles to play in Mexico (Jan 1940). When Don Newcombe requested a higher salary during 1945 contract negotiations, Manley wrote to his parents, accusing Newcombe of “showing a big head” (Mar 1945).

The correspondence provides information about Effa Manley and other team owners’ efforts to break through the color barrier for their players. In October of 1945, Manley provides an account of the Negro v. White major league all stars game. (She was disappointed.) Manley notes that she, and other Negro League team owners, had been invited to a meeting with Branch Rickey, president and GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Also that month, J.B. Martin, president of the Negro American League, wrote to her regarding the possibility of Jackie Robinson integrating white professional baseball: “What we are trying to do is to set up a principle for the ones to follow [after Jackie Robinson]. There will be no price named, for we are not going to jeopardize Robinson’s chance. If they [Major League Baseball] say $500.00 or $5,000.00, all well and good, we will accept it. We won’t have it said of us that we asked too much for Robinson and they will have to let him return…” (Oct 1945). A few months later Manley wrote to Monte Irvin urging him not to play for a Mexican team, but to go to college on the GI Bill. She also argued that he should play in the United States so that the scouts for the Majors could see him (Feb 1946).

Finally, in the correspondence one can glean Effa Manley’s commitment to civil rights and social causes. For example in response to Warren M. Banner of the National Urban League who was gathering information on trade boycotts, Effa Manley wrote a three-page letter regarding the boycott of L. Blumstein’s, a department store on 230 West 125th Street in Harlem. The “Buy-Where-You-Can-Work" campaign, was organized to protest Blumstein’s policy of refusing to hire black clerks or cashiers despite the fact that the majority of the shoppers at Blumstein’s were African-American. Manley, as secretary of the Citizens League that organized the boycott, was well aware of the details and wrote a comprehensive response to Banner’s query (8 May 1940).

Among her many charitable activities as owner of the Newark Eagles, Manley organized games as fundraisers for the Urban League (Jul 1939), Newark Community Hospital (Mar 1940), and the Jewish Community Hospital (April 1941), among others. She allowed the New Jersey Urban League to promote and raise funds at games for the March on Washington (1941) and she led a team raising money for the Newark Boys Club (Mar 1942). As part of the war effort, she raised money to transport WPA entertainers to Fort Dix to perform a weekly show for “newly inducted Negro soldiers” (Aug 1942) and she promoted and participated in “Mrs. [Mary Mcleod] Bethune’s” war bond drive because “We as a race have not done much organized bond buying, and as a result a lot of people do not know how big a contribution we have made” (June 1944).