Joseph C. (Joseph Columbus) Manning

Born in Alabama in 1860, Joseph Columbus Manning became politically active while still a young man and emerged as an outspoken supporter of the Populist cause in the 1890s. He is best known as the author of Politics of Alabama (1893), a contemporary account tied closely to the Kolb-Jones gubernatorial struggle, and later wrote Fadeout of Populism (1928), looking back on the movement and its defeats.

Manning was not just an observer of politics but a participant. Contemporary records and later historical references connect him with reform politics in Alabama and with newspaper work, including service as editor of the Southern American. His writing has the energy of someone arguing from inside the fight rather than from a distance, which makes it especially vivid for readers interested in Populism and Southern political history.

He died in 1930. Although he is not a widely known literary figure today, his books remain useful firsthand windows into Alabama's political battles and the hopes of late-19th-century insurgent politics.