page_title: Leo Frank
section_title: Antisemitism and media coverage
hierarchical_section_title: Leo Frank / Antisemitism and media coverage
caption_attribution_description: English: Thomas E. Watson, US Senator and Representative from Georgia
context_page_description: Leo Max Frank was an American factory superintendent who was convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia. His trial, conviction, and appeals attracted national attention. His lynching two years later, in response to the commutation of his death sentence, became the focus of social, regional, political, and racial concerns, particularly regarding antisemitism. Today, the consensus of researchers on the subject holds that Frank was wrongly convicted and Jim Conley was likely the actual murderer.
  Born to a Jewish-American family in Texas, Frank was raised in New York and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University before moving to Atlanta in 1908. Marrying in 1910, he involved himself with the city's Jewish community and was elected president of the Atlanta chapter of the B'nai B'rith, a Jewish fraternal organization, in 1912. Although antisemitism was not locally common, there were growing concerns regarding child labor at factories owned by members of the Jewish community. One of these children was Mary Phagan, who worked at the National Pencil Company where Frank was director.
context_section_description: The sensationalism in the press that started before the trial continued throughout the trial, the appeals process, the commutation decision, and beyond. At the time, local papers were the dominant source of information, but they were not entirely anti-Frank. The Constitution alone assumed Frank's guilt, while both the Georgian and the Journal would later comment about the public hysteria in Atlanta during the trial, each suggesting the need to reexamine the evidence against the defendant. On March 14, 1914, while the extraordinary motion hearing was pending, the Journal called for a new trial, saying that to execute Frank based on the atmosphere both within and outside the courtroom would "amount to judicial murder." Other newspapers in the state followed suit and many ministers spoke from the pulpit supporting a new trial. L. O. Bricker, the pastor of the church attended by Phagan's family, said that based on "the awful tension of public feeling, it was next to impossible for a jury of our fellow human beings to have granted him a fair, fearless and impartial trial."
  On October 12, 1913, the New York Sun became the first major northern paper to give a detailed account of the Frank trial. In discussing the charges of antisemitism in the trial, it described Atlanta as more liberal on the subject than any other southern cities. It went on to say that antisemitism did arise during the trial as Atlantans reacted to statements attributed to Frank's Jewish supporters, who dismissed Phagan as "nothing but a factory girl". The paper said, "The anti-Semitic feeling was the natural result of the belief that the Jews had banded to free Frank, innocent or guilty. The supposed solidarity of the Jews for Frank, even if he was guilty, caused a Gentile solidarity against him." On November 8, 1913, the executive committee of the American Jewish Committee, headed by Louis Marshall, addressed the Frank case. They did so following Judge Roan's reconsideration motion and motivated by the issues raised in the Sun. They chose not to take a public stance as a committee, instead deciding to raise funds individually to influence public opinion in favor of Frank.
  Albert Lasker, a wealthy advertising magnate, responded to these calls to help Frank. Lasker contributed personal funds and arranged a public relations effort in support of Frank. In Atlanta, during the time of the extraordinary motion, Lasker coordinated Frank's meetings with the press and coined the slogan "The Truth Is on the March" to characterize the efforts of Frank's defense team. He persuaded prominent figures such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Jane Addams to make statements supporting Frank. During the commutation hearing, Vice President Thomas R. Marshall weighed in, as did many leading magazine and newspaper editors, including Herbert Croly, editor of the New Republic; C.P.J. Mooney, editor of the Chicago Tribune; Mark Sullivan, editor of Collier's; R. E. Stafford, editor of the Daily Oklahoman; and D. D. Moore, editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Adolph Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, became involved about the same time as Lasker, organizing a prolonged campaign advocating for a new trial for Frank. Both Ochs and Lasker attempted to heed Louis Marshall's warnings about antagonizing the "sensitiveness of the southern people and engender the feeling that the north is criticizing the courts and the people of Georgia." Dinnerstein writes that these attempts failed, "because many Georgians interpreted every item favorable to Frank as a hostile act."
  Tom Watson, editor of the Jeffersonian, had remained publicly silent during Frank's trial. Among Watson's political enemies was Senator Hoke Smith, former owner of The Atlanta Journal, which was still considered to be Smith's political instrument. When the Journal called for a reevaluation of the evidence against Frank, Watson, in the March 19, 1914 edition of his magazine, attacked Smith for trying "to bring the courts into disrepute, drag down the judges to the level of criminals, and destroy the confidence of the peo
caption: Tom Watson, publisher of Watson's Magazine and The Jeffersonian, incited public opinion against Frank.
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