Mordecai Manuel Noah, American journalist, playwright, and diplomat (d. 1851)

Mordecai Manuel Noah (July 14, 1785, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – May 22, 1851, New York) was an American sheriff, playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian. He was born in a family of Portuguese Sephardic ancestry. He was the most important Jewish lay leader in New York in the early 19th century, and the first Jew born in the United States to reach national prominence. His politically motivated reviews blasting plays and performers "of colour" at William Brown's African Grove Theatre led to his identification as the originator of the stereotypical black portrayed in American minstrel shows and as "the father of Negro minstrelsy".