Note: Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow Publishing, and Kaia Alderson for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

I had recently seen a documentary of Negro League baseball which mentioned Effa Manley, so when I saw she was the subject of this book, I knew I had to read it. This is a fictionalized account of her life, based on what could be gleaned from accounts of her life.

Effa Manley was born a mixed-race woman at a time when just the hint of black ancestry defined a person. Her stepfather was black, but her mother’s ancestry is up for debate and it’s believed she was the product of an affair her mother had with her (white) boss. When she moved to New York City, she lived in Harlem but was white enough to get jobs normally reserved for white women. She had dreams of opening her own business designing and selling hats.

It was at a New York Yankees game that she met the man who would be her second and most beloved husband, Abe Manley. Manley had a background as a gambler, and considerable wealth, which enabled Effa to be embraced by the wealthy Harlem socialites. Almost immediately she began organizing protests in Harlem over the businesses which catered to black clientele but refused to hire blacks to work for them.

Embracing their love of baseball, Abe bought a Negro League baseball franchise. It started out in Brooklyn, but the competition for attendance proved difficult and after just a year the Manleys moved it to Newark, New Jersey. At a time when there were few women baseball executives, white or black, Effa worked in the league office and ran the day-to-day operations of the team. She advocated for better treatment of the players and scheduled promotional events that highlighted civil rights. She also had the foresight to know that sooner or later, Major League Baseball would integrate and pleaded with the other Negro League owners to plan for that day. Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

The book tells her story based on the information available. Much of the plot is conjecture, such as Abe Manley’s condition that might have prevented their marriage from ever being consummated. Much was written about her in the newspapers was derogatory, but there is no way to know what was true. There was such hostility to her both as a woman and as a black woman that it cannot be taken at face value. Alderson has done a great job of piecing together what is known about Effa to craft a story that explains how much of what was written was a product of the times as well as the hostility she faced.

I felt In a League of Her Own is a great story of a woman who defied the odds at a time when women weren’t thought to be capable of accomplishing all that she accomplished. She had a better head for business than many of the men she was surrounded by. She fought for civil rights before it was making headlines. The story here is a great bit of insight into that time and what it was like for a person of color who was so light-skinned they could pass for white.