INTRODUCTION (courtesy of the New Georgia Encyclopedia)

"The Leo Frank case is one of the most notorious and highly publicized cases in the legal annals of Georgia. A Jewish man in Atlanta was placed on trial and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old girl who worked for the National Pencil Company, which he managed. 

Before the lynching of Frank two years later, the case became known throughout the nation. 

The degree of anti-Semitism involved in Frank’s conviction and subsequent lynching was enough of a factor to have inspired Jews, and others, throughout the country to protest the conviction of an innocent man."

--Dinnerstein, Leonard. "Leo Frank Case." New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Aug 11, 2020. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/leo-frank-case/

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LEO FRANK'S EARLY LIFE

LEO FRANK in GEORGIA LIBRARY and ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS AVAILABLE in the DLG

HOW TO FIND RESOURCES IN THE DIGITAL LIBRARY OF GEORGIA 

NEW GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES related to LEO FRANK

• "Atlanta Georgian."

• “Leo Frank Case.”

• “Lynching.”

• "Ku Klux Klan in the Twentieth Century.”

• "Judaism and Jews."

• "John M. Slaton."

• "Jeffersonian Publishing Company."

• "Thomas E. Watson."

LEO FRANK in GEORGIA HISTORIC NEWSPAPERS 

HOW DO I USE GEORGIA HISTORIC NEWSPAPERS TO FIND WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR?

Instructional videos on how to use the Georgia Historic Newspapers site

HISTORIC NEWSPAPER COVERAGE of LEO FRANK

Leo Frank in The Atlanta Georgian

About the Atlanta Georgian

Frederick Loring Seely and John Temple Graves conspicuously launched the Atlanta Georgian with a special 36-page issue on April 25, 1906. With an initial 17,000 subscribers, the Georgian became Atlanta's third-largest daily broadsheet and an evening competitor to The Atlanta Journal. Weeks before the Georgian's first issue, large advertisements appeared in newspapers across Georgia emphasizing the paper's independence and its privately leased telegram wire; using the penny-press business model, the Georgian stressed its access to the most up-to-date information. As a famous New South orator, politician, and writer, Graves' name accompanied each advertisement in bold lettering beneath the soon-to-be paper's name. Former Atlanta Journal and Atlanta News employees, made up the Georgian's staff, including Charles J. Bayne, another noteworthy Southern writer. The newspaper's early political content advocated for prohibition, criticized Georgia's convict-lease system, and pushed for child labor laws. Graves, also a notable segregationist and defender of lynch law, expressed these beliefs in widely circulated editorials.

Throughout the 1906 gubernatorial campaigns, the Georgian supported segregationist and reform Democrat Hoke Smith; the paper's Democratic politics continued for the rest of its 33-year run. Additionally, the sheet contributed to growing racial tensions in the city, and circulated unsubstantiated claims of alleged assaults on white women, supposedly perpetuated by Black men. These headlines culminated in the September 22, 1906, Atlanta Race Massacre, which lasted three days and drew international attention to the city. Over three days, the violence resulted in the death of at least twenty-five Black residents. Thriving on controversy, the Georgian later published sensational, and often unconfirmed, front-page stories related to the infamous Leo Frank Case.

The Georgian became the Atlanta Georgian and News in February 1907 after it absorbed the recently bankrupt Atlanta News, and this officially made the Georgian the leading sensationalist and society paper in the city. In October 1907, Graves accepted an editor position with William Randolph Hearst's New York American, but the Georgian continued to feature Graves as a special contributor. By 1908, Edwin Camp and Lucian Lamar Knight managed the paper's editorial department.

In February 1912, Hearst extended his chain of newspapers with a $360,000 purchase of the Atlanta Georgian and News. Graves resumed editorial control of the Atlanta Georgian, which gradually introduced multiple daily editions, syndicated two-column back-page editorials, and eye-catching banner headlines; all identifying characteristics of a Hearst newspaper. Hearst's Atlanta Sunday American first published from the Georgian plant on April 6, 1913. During this period, the paper employed Mildred Seydell, one of the first women newspaper journalists in Georgia, as managing editor of its "society" page.

When World War I began in August 1914, the Georgian boasted daily circulation rates exceeding 51,000. Its eight, or more, editions published every piece of war news it obtained, regardless of the source. After 33 years as one of Atlanta's most notorious newspapers, the Georgian published its last issue on December 16, 1939. Former U.S. congressperson, Ohio governor, and presidential candidate, James M. Cox purchased both the Atlanta Georgian and Atlanta Journal, but he ceased publication of the Georgian.

All coverage of Leo Frank in The Atlanta Georgian from 1913-1915  (organized by date, oldest first)

Leo Frank in The Jeffersonian

About The Jeffersonian

In October 1906, Thomas E. Watson and his son, John Durham Watson, published the inaugural issue of the Weekly Jeffersonian in Augusta, Georgia. The 16-page paper, which served more as a medium for Thomas Watson’s editorials than news, reached a nationwide audience and achieved circulation rates exceeding 25,000. Much like Watson’s first newspaper, the People’s Party Paper, the Jeffersonian can be considered an extension of Watson himself and his political ambitions. The publication’s rapid growth, in part, is credited to Watson’s access to the Atlanta Journal mailing lists, which he acquired by endorsing Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Hoke Smith. Watson became a national figure in the 1890s as a fiery representative for the People’s Party (Populist Party) in Georgia, and his significant influence in the state meant any candidates for governor needed Watson’s approval. From 1906 to 1916, Watson never supported the same candidate for governor in back-to-back elections, but his official endorsement proved necessary to win the executive office.

Watson presented Jeffersonian readers with dramatic shifts on his policy stances, particularly those related to enfranchisement. Since the cessation of the People’s Party Paper in 1898, Watson became an outspoken proponent of disenfranchising African Americans. Contrary to his title as Populist, he also transitioned to support for the county unit system, which gave less-populous counties a disproportionate share of representation. When Watson was nominated by the nearly-defunct Populist Party for a largely symbolic presidential run in 1908, one of Watson’s main tenets was that of white supremacy.

From April 1907 to November 1910, Watson published the Jeffersonian from his offices in the Austell Building in Atlanta. After an unsuccessful campaign for state Senate against former ally Hoke Smith in November 1910, however, Watson moved the publishing operation to his plantation home, Hickory Hill, in Thomson, Georgia. He purchased new machinery with a $100,000 investment and launched the Jeffersonian Publishing Company with a lavish party. Mrs. Alice Louise Lytle, Watson’s Atlanta office assistant, joined the company as managing editor. Along with these changes, the Jeffersonian gradually began to feature more bold-faced type, red-inked headlines, and sensational attacks on political figures. Most notably, Watson ramped up such extreme anti-Catholic rhetoric that he faced charges for sending obscene literature through the mail. In 1912, Watson aggressively editorialized against Woodrow Wilson, calling him “another Bill Taft,” and eventually announced his support for Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party after Wilson won the Democratic nomination.

By September 1915, Watson’s paper reached a circulation peak of 87,000 because of his months-long crusade against Leo Frank. He later praised Frank’s lynching, believing Frank’s commutation to be an injustice. Despite the Jeffersonian’s popularity, the newspaper’s demise began with Watson’s anti-war rhetoric. He ceaselessly criticized American involvement in World War I, and eventually prepared a legal case against conscription. After months of publishing anti-war material, the postmaster general formally complained to the United States Senate about Watson’s paper in August 1917. The Post Office Department subsequently banned the Jeffersonian, and Watson never published a weekly newspaper again.

All coverage of Leo Frank in The Jeffersonian from 1913-1915  (organized by date, oldest first)

Leo Frank in The Southern Israelite

About The Southern Israelite

Rabbi H. Cerf Straus established the Southern Israelite as a temple bulletin in Augusta in 1925. The publication was so popular, he expanded it into a monthly newspaper. Later in the decade, Straus sold the paper to Herman Dessauer and Sara B. Simmons, who moved the paper to Atlanta, where it began circulating state-wide and eventually throughout the South. In 1930, M. Stephen Schiffer, a former employee of the Atlanta Georgian, took over as sole owner of the Southern Israelite. Even in the earliest years, the paper not only covered the news of the southern Jewry, but also the issues that involved Jewish populations throughout the nation and world, including the Holocaust and later the creation of the Jewish state of Israel. In October of 1934, the Southern Israelite began publishing a four page weekly edition, supplemented by its established monthly magazine edition. Ownership of the paper was turned over to a corporation headed by Israelite editor Adolph Rosenberg in 1951, while the paper continued its mission as the voice of the Jewish community in Atlanta. In October of 1958, the paper was at the forefront of the coverage of the Temple bombing in Atlanta, giving its readers a unique first hand perspective. The monthly edition of the paper was discontinued in 1973 in favor of its increasingly growing weekly edition. In 1987, the paper changed its name from the Southern Israelite to the Atlanta Jewish Times and guaranteed at least thirty-two page issues moving forward. The paper is today owned by Jewish Renaissance Media and continues as a weekly publication with a readership of over 25,000. 

All Coverage of Leo Frank in the Southern Israelite from 1913-1986 (organized by date, oldest first. Includes coverage of aftermath and pardon). 

Leo Frank Coverage in National Newspapers via Chronicling America/National Digital Newspaper Project (NDNP)

All coverage of Leo Frank in Chronicling America/NDNP newspapers from 1913-1915  (coverage of trial, appeals, lynching)

All coverage of Leo Frank in Chronicling America/NDNP newspapers from 1915-1963  (coverage of the aftermath until 1963)

Trial and Lynching of Leo Frank: Topics in Chronicling America (topic guide)

LEO FRANK in ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS OUTSIDE of GEORGIA

LEO FRANK EXHIBITS ONLINE

INTERPRETATIONS of LEO FRANK'S STORY (HISTORICAL and FICTIONAL)

LEO FRANK in GEORGIA 8th GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARD SS8H7d

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