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By Mary Frances Phagan Kean, June 24, 2025

Was Leo Frank convicted because of Anti-Semitism? Fact Check: FALSE.

ADL's Drapes of Anti-Semitism

Regarding the 1913 summer murder trial of Atlanta B'nai B'rith President Leo Max Frank (the trial occurred from July 28th through August 21st, and closing arguments commenced from August 21st, through August 25th), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) article stated: "Anti-Semitism hung heavy in the courtroom." However, this claim is not accurate and is based on malicious academic fraud. Anti-Judaic religious bigotry or ethnic Jew-hatred did not pervade the courtroom during Leo Frank's murder trial in the Fulton County Superior Courthouse at any time during the month-long proceedings, neither inside nor outside the judiciary building. The suggestion that anti-Judaism sentiment influenced Leo Frank's conviction is a monstrous misrepresentation of history and an unfounded accusation that amounts to an anti-Southern blood libel and anti-Gentile ethnic hate crime hoax, implying that when Leo Frank was duly convicted on August 25, 1913, his guilty verdict stemmed from his Jewish identity and because "anti-Semitism hung heavily in the courtroom." Journalists stationed both inside and outside the courtroom reported no instances of antisemitic death threats being shouted at the trial jury, contrary to the claims made by Rabbi Steven Lebow, former ADL director Abraham Foxman, and former Governor Roy Barnes.

Historical evidence contradicts this specific courtroom narrative and the wider narrative that anti-Semitism was rampant or widespread at the time in the region. During this period, Jews were generally regarded as White in Southern society and were treated as respected equals to white Christians / Gentiles.

Intermarriage rates between Jews and Gentiles were always high in the American South, and there was no widespread animosity against Jews, other than rare exceptions. Interfaith marriage rates between Christians and Jews are still as high today as they were more than a century ago. Many synagogues in Georgia actively officiate and welcome interfaith marriages, inviting non-Jewish Christians to attend their congregations. I've lost count of how many interfaith weddings I was invited to during my lifetime. Marietta Emeritus Rabbi Steven Lebow, who is one of the loudest voices seeking the official exoneration of Leo Frank, has officiated over many dozens of interfaith weddings during his three-decade career as the chief Rabbi of Temple Kol Emeth.

Hoax: Half of Georgia's 3,000 Jewish families left the state in the aftermath of Leo Frank's extrajudicial hanging on August 17, 1915. Fact Check: FALSE.

The trial of Leo Frank was in the summer of 1913. The Jewish population of Georgia grew by 250% between 1908 and 1918. We might ask the common-sense question: Do Jews actively move to places where antisemitism is widespread or rampant? It doesn't sound reasonable that they would. Throughout my seven decades of life, I've witnessed Jews and Gentiles living alongside each other like extended family. I myself adopted, by soul, by love, and by bond—not by blood—Jewish grandparents, who had been a significant part of my father's life when a Jewish serviceman died. My father took the mantle of strength to honor and memorialize every year a Jewish serviceman who had passed away. Antisemitism and anti-Gentilism were rare occurrences in the South, but when these "isms" are stirred up, it's usually by Jews upset at the "problem of Jewish assimilation." I have been fortunate to have lifelong Jewish friends, but when Jews stir up the false charge of antisemitism, it's usually out of paranoia that the intermarriage rate between Jews and Gentiles post-World-War-Two is the highest it has ever been in recent centuries. Even long-time Jewish Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz lamented on a hot mic about the "problem of assimilation."

Commitment to Honoring Jewish Soldiers Who Became Family

My father, a military serviceman, took it upon himself as his duty, paid his respects to fallen Jewish soldiers who had served alongside him, honoring their sacrifice and memory, without distinction of faith, and because of this, I was adopted by two Jewish grandparents that I affectionately called Grandma and Grandpa. They adopted me, and I adopted them, as a bond for life. Though I am Christian and Gentile by blood, I considered them to be kin family and remember them fondly.

Jewish-Gentile Business Relations and Partnerships

Jewish businesses and Jewish-Gentile business partnerships flourished in the South, and Jews prospered in Georgia, my home state, particularly in major cities like Atlanta, Savannah, and Marietta. Historically, they faced neither cultural nor legal discrimination. In fact, Jews played a significant role in Georgia's history, holding numerous leadership roles and elected government positions. Recently, a Jew was elected to one of the highest political positions in the state of Georgia. Thomas Jonathan Ossoff, a.k.a. Jon Ossoff (born February 16, 1987), has been serving since 2021 as a United States senator from Georgia for the Democratic Party. He is presently the youngest U.S. senator.

If any group faced systemic discrimination in Georgia at the time, it was African Americans—not Jews, who have always been regarded as ethnically white in the South. Leo Frank and his defense team tried to frame two African Americans who worked at the National Pencil Company (Newt Lee and Jim Conley), and the trial brief of evidence sustains this fact. Frank's statements to the press sustain this fact. I have those records. I can provide transcripts and photographs of the original legal records and newspaper reports of the period. I am in the process of transcribing upward of 2,000 newspaper articles and dubbing it "The Mary Frances Phagan Kean Legacy Project." So far, I am up to one thousand seven hundred newspaper article transcriptions from the local Atlanta press from 1913 to 1915. I will be publishing these transcriptions with screenshots of their original newspaper clippings in the forthcoming weeks and months and years. Accompanying them will be audiobooks, created with Eleven Labs AI (regrettably without my Southern accent!).

Throughout Leo Frank's trial, his religion was never used against him in the courtroom; to say otherwise is an ADL anti-Gentile lie. Furthermore, he was not labeled a "Yankee Jew" in the mainstream press of Atlanta, nor was this term ever used against him in court (if anyone has any doubts, I will be sure to post the original newspaper transcripts and Leo Frank trial brief of evidence). The leading newspapers of the day—the Atlanta Journal, the Atlanta Georgian, and the Atlanta Constitution—all provided detailed accounts of the trial proceedings (July 28 – August 21, 1913). These publications meticulously documented the questions posed by attorneys and the responses from witnesses, and at no point did they refer to Leo Frank in derogatory terms related to his Jewish identity.

It is worth repeating that I have personally transcribed these newspaper reports with great care and made them available on my family's website, LittleMaryPhagan.com, which is dedicated to seeking justice for Little Mary Phagan (1899 – 1913). The historical record, as preserved in these primary sources, refutes the notion that antisemitism played a role in Leo Frank's indictment, trial or conviction. As a family member of little Mary Phagan, I want to clarify that there was no antisemitism in the Leo Frank murder case, and he had a fair trial. My family was present during the entire proceedings. The trial of Leo Frank was marred by instances of bigotry, chauvinism, and prejudice, but these were not directed against Jews as antisemitism. Rather, they reflected an anti-Gentile sentiment in certain moments. One striking example occurred when Leo Frank's mother, Rachel Jacobs Frank, suddenly rose in the courtroom in explosive rage, interrupting prosecutor Hugh Dorsey mid-questioning of a witness. In a burst of frustration, she shouted at Dorsey, branding him a "Christian Gentile dog!" This outburst underscored a strain of hostility toward Gentiles, not the reverse. What you often find with the weaponizing of antisemitism in the Leo Frank case is that every accusation of antisemitism is a deflection and confession of anti-Gentilism. There is considerable anti-Gentilism in the Leo Frank case, much of it with an anti-Black nature (see the closing arguments of Leo Frank's defense attorneys).

Leo Frank's Jewish identity did surface during the trial, but it was raised by his own defense team, first and foremost, not the prosecution. On August 21, 1913, during closing arguments, defense attorney Reuben Rose Arnold referenced Frank's Jewishness, claiming persecution—perhaps as a strategic appeal to the jury. Meanwhile, Luther Zeigler Rosser, Frank's lead counsel, took a different approach. In an attempt to pin the crime on Jim Conley, a key witness, Rosser resorted to vile racial slurs, hurling gutter epithets at Conley to discredit him. This disgraceful and racist tactic was a calculated effort to mislead the jury into believing Conley was the murderer. Yet, the jury was not swayed by this underhanded maneuver. Frank's defense was to weaponize antisemitism against a motorman who drove a trolley and play the anti-Black race card as a last resort in his failing case. The jury saw right through it. What the jury also saw from the defense was that it was attempting to create confusion by presenting contradictory evidence and a cacophony of defense witness testimony.

Ultimately, the jury convicted Leo Frank based on the strength of the evidence against him, not because of his religion. The notion that antisemitism drove the verdict mischaracterized the trial's dynamics. Prejudice existed, but it was not a one-dimensional attack on Frank's Jewish identity; the case hinged on facts, not faith.

I am asking the Governor of Georgia, the Georgia Assembly, and the political leaders of Georgia, including District Attorney Fani Willis, not to officially exonerate the convicted homicidal rapist-pedophile Leo Frank.

If you have any further questions or inquiries, please contact me by private message on X.com @PhaganKean

Sincerely,
Mary Frances Phagan Kean
June 24, 2025

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