On April 26, 1913, at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, Georgia, a thirteen-year-old girl named Mary Phagan was raped and murdered after receiving her wages from the superintendent of the factory, Leo Frank. Jim Conley, an African American sweeper at the factory, was arrested because he was caught trying to rinse blood out of a shirt. After Newt Lee, the night watchman, told the investigators that Frank seemed nervous the day of the murder, both Lee and Frank were ordered by a coroner’s jury to be held under the charge of murder. Lee’s statement was later proven false by two other workers who disputed the story. Conley admitted to writing the notes that were found next to Mary Phagan’s body, but under the orders of Frank. On July 27,
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The case displays the sense of honor that a White Southern man felt was needed in order to protect the honor of a white southern female from encroachment by an outsider. In this case, the outsider was Leo Frank, who was a rich Northern Jew in a position of power. The mob who lynched Frank believed that they were getting justice for Mary Phagan by lynching him in Marietta, Georgia. The next social tension shown by the Frank case is the strain between Gentiles and Jews. There was an extreme sense of religious prejudice towards Jews, and for Frank, he was judged guilty simply because he was associated with the Jewish people. The final social tension is the racist tendencies exhibited by White men towards African American men. These tendencies can be seen in their language used towards African Americans in newspapers, as well as the way the Police Officials handled the Leo Frank …show more content…
This racial tension was shown through newspapers in the way that articles written by whites racistly described African Americans, as well as the police officials’ reactions to the case. A Chicago Tribune writer observed that a Jew was an easier victim to blame than an African American. Southerners do not hate African Americans in the South, they disenfranchise and lynch them. “To hate them would mean some acknowledgment of the equality of white and blackamoor, which no true Southerner will admit.” This quote is an example of how the white southern men at the time thought of African Americans, and the same goes for the Police. For the police to acknowledge that the African American man, James Conley, gave them evidence against Frank but they tossed it aside, it would mean that they would have to acknowledge that Conley was anything more than a slave, which the police didn’t want to do. This is because they were looking for somebody quickly because they were going to lose their jobs if they didn’t, and a Jew was an easier victim to blame than an African American because of the acknowledgment they are a
The case displays the sense of honor that a White Southern man felt was needed in order to protect the honor of a white southern female from encroachment by an outsider. In this case, the outsider was Leo Frank, who was a rich Northern Jew in a position of power. The mob who lynched Frank believed that they were getting justice for Mary Phagan by lynching him in Marietta, Georgia. The next social tension shown by the Frank case is the strain between Gentiles and Jews. There was an extreme sense of religious prejudice towards Jews, and for Frank, he was judged guilty simply because he was associated with the Jewish people. The final social tension is the racist tendencies exhibited by White men towards African American men. These tendencies can be seen in their language used towards African Americans in newspapers, as well as the way the Police Officials handled the Leo Frank …show more content…
This racial tension was shown through newspapers in the way that articles written by whites racistly described African Americans, as well as the police officials’ reactions to the case. A Chicago Tribune writer observed that a Jew was an easier victim to blame than an African American. Southerners do not hate African Americans in the South, they disenfranchise and lynch them. “To hate them would mean some acknowledgment of the equality of white and blackamoor, which no true Southerner will admit.” This quote is an example of how the white southern men at the time thought of African Americans, and the same goes for the Police. For the police to acknowledge that the African American man, James Conley, gave them evidence against Frank but they tossed it aside, it would mean that they would have to acknowledge that Conley was anything more than a slave, which the police didn’t want to do. This is because they were looking for somebody quickly because they were going to lose their jobs if they didn’t, and a Jew was an easier victim to blame than an African American because of the acknowledgment they are a