Marietta History Files
The Battle for Leo Frank
Between Frank's conviction in 1913 and his lynching in 1915, a national pro-Frank media campaign met with a backlash of antisemitism.
In the weeks following Leo Frank’s conviction for the murder of Mary Phagan, two separate campaigns to free the condemned man began to take shape. The first was a legal battle conducted by defense attorneys Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold, who would appeal the case to the trial judge, the Georgia Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. All of these proved to be of no avail. The second battle, which was both more successful and more incendiary, would take place in the court of public opinion with the news media as its principle combatants. It was in this arena that the issue of anti-Semitism, hitherto no more than a smoldering ember, would be fanned into full blown animosity. The likelihood of this was …
In this Article:
Mark Cohen
10:06 am on Saturday, July 28, 2012
and put what in its place? more ›