traveling exhibitions the new south on trial: |
Exhibition information TBA.
This exhibition presents the murder of Mary Phagan and the lynching of Leo Frank as an examination of the cultural and socioeconomic elements of the "New South." On Sunday, April 27, 1913, Mary Phagan's body, a child laborer, was discovered in the basement of the National Pencil Company factory. Although there were other viable suspects, Leo Frank, the northern-born, city-bred young Jewish factory superintendent, was arrested and charged with Mary Phagan's brutal murder.
Feelings of anger, excitement and fear swirling around the case polarized the Jewish, the Anglo, and the African American communities in the city. Leo Frank was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang. On August 16, 1915, after Frank's sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment, twenty-five men abducted Frank from his cell and lynched him.
The tragic fates of Mary Phagan and Leo Frank divided the city of Atlanta and altered the sense of acceptance previously felt by the Jewish population within the greater community. The case remains a haunting presence in Atlanta even today, still evoking feelings of unrest and discomfort when discussed.
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