Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, Black athletes played in the Negro Leagues--on teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans, and often run by Black owners. Join Andrea Williams when she discusses her new book, BASEBALL'S LEADING LADY with Ramin Ganeshram, executive director of the Westport Museum for History and Culture. This is the riveting true story of the woman at the center of the Black baseball world: Effa Manley, co-owner and business manager of the Newark Eagles.
This event will be appropriate for all ages.
Andrea Williams is an author and journalist who worked in marketing and development for the 
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, before turning to writing full-time. She now lives and writes in Nashville, Tennessee.
If you missed the event, you can watch the recording here.
Community Partner: Westport Museum for History and Culture
Ramin Ganeshram is both an award-winning journalist and historian who is currently the Executive Director of the Westport Museum for History & Culture (formerly Westport Historical Society). Ganeshram’s area of study has been colonial-era African American history, particularly focused on enslaved African-Americans and mixed-race people and has been widely recognized for evolving the 131 year old Westport Museum toward an inclusive interpretation of local history as part of the larger American story by focusing on race, ethnicity and gender. In recognition for her work as curator of Westport Museum’s 2018-19 exhibit, Remembered: The History of African Americans in Westport, Ganeshram received the prestigious award for Leadership in the Museum Field from the New England Museum Association (NEMA). Remembered won awards of merit from the Connecticut League of History Associations (CLHO) and the coveted Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). In 2019, Ganeshram was also awarded the Paul Cuffee Memorial Fellowship for the For the Study of Minorities in American Maritime History. A professional chef, Ganeshram is also the author of 10 books focused on food, cooking and food history.
The Newark Public Library created a short video the Library produced about the Newark Eagles based on the team's business papers.
