Currently a senior fellow at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, Howard Manly has worked as a print and television journalist specializing in race, culture, politics and the law. He is the former executive editor of the Bay State Banner, Boston’s only weekly newspaper that focused on African American news, business, health and culture.
He has reported for the Boston Globe, New York Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Newsweek magazine, and was an opinion columnist for the Boston Herald. Manly was also a correspondent for “Greater Boston,” a nightly news show, and host of “Basic Black,” a public affairs show, both on PBS affiliate WGBH. Manly is also co-author of "Lift Every Voice," a nonfiction book about the Boys Choir of Harlem and "Yoba: Lessons from the Street and Other Places," a nonfiction book about "New York Undercover" television star and community activist Malik Yoba. His current book project explores ideas about patriotism and democracy among black newspapers during times when dissent was deemed politically subversive.
At the Sillerman Center, Howard consults on an emerging project that explores possibilities for philanthropic support of local journalism and, related to this, the harm that the loss of a vibrant independent black press has had upon our civic culture and democracy.