Ralza M. Manly

[1][2][3][4] For four years beginning in 1848 he was principal of a grammar school in Randolph, Vermont, before leaving to become president of Northfield Academy, a post he held from 1853 to 1854.

[5] Upon the war's end in 1865, Manly was assigned to the Freedmen's Bureau in June 1865 and made Virginia's assistant superintendent of education.

[5] In 1868 and 1869 Manly used his position to attempt to influence elections, through funding and assignments of teachers, in favor of Henry H. Wells and similar moderate Republicans, but was unsuccessful in the latter year.

[8] While superintendent, he envisioned creating a school which would train African-American teachers, who could in turn travel around the Southern United States and "inspire" Blacks living around the nation.

[5] He also held a seat on the Richmond School Board (from June 1869 to 1875) and city council (from August 1869 to 1874; appointed in 1869, elected in 1871).

Manly was then elected to the city's new board of aldermen, a post he held for three years and eventually resigned in October 1877.