100 Years Ago: Leo Frank lynched by mob in Marietta

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August 17th, 2015

In this Tuesday, July 28, 2015 photo, a lot stands which used to be an orchard where in 1915 Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank was lynched by the town's citizens after the governor commuted his death sentence for murdering a worker, 13-year-old Mary Phagan, in Marietta, Ga. The case, charged with race, religion, sex and class, exploded in a national media frenzy, cementing a North-South divide and exposing the resentments of economic upheaval. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A conversation with associate professor of history Clifford Kuhn

Today marks 100 years since Leo Frank was lynched by a mob in Marietta. 

During a conversation, Georgia State University associate professor of history Clifford Kuhn revisits the sensational murder case and subsequent lynching.  

In 1913, Frank was the Jewish superintendent of the National Pencil Co. in Atlanta.

Mary Phagan was a 13-year-old employee of the factory. When she was found murdered — and presumably raped — Frank was accused of the crime.

Kuhn set the scene on the first day of Frank’s trial in 1913.

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