Publisher | Entrepreneur 

As owner and publisher of The Daily Record, Alexander Lightfoot Manly wrote articles that focused on Black empowerment and development. It was said to be the state's only daily African-American newspaper at the time. Manly wrote an editorial in August of 1898 to rebut a speech by a Georgia woman that was printed in the Wilmington Messenger that suggested white men "lynch, a thousand times a week, if necessary," to protect white women from Black “rapists.” After his response was printed, The Daily Record was burned to the ground and Manly was banished from the city of Wilmington.

Manly’s wife, Carrie, wrote letters to the couple’s sons in 1954 saying the editorial “turned Southern cities from N.C. to Ala. upside down.” Like many others who were banished from the Port City, Manly never moved back. He died in 1944 in Pennsylvania. 

Of note: Alexander Manly’s white paternal grandfather was former North Carolina Governor Charles Manly, who served from 1849-1851.