Tragedy in the New South: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank

Economic Transformation and Child Labor

Intersection of North Broad Street and Marietta Street, Atlanta, Georgia, 1910s

North Broad St., at Marietta St., intersection. 12 1/2 Broad--Wells Bros. signs. 24--Exchange Hotel. 44--Grant Bldg. 1910s.

Copyright Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Courtesy of Georgia State University. AJCP552-044c, Atlanta Journal Constitution Photographic Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.

Georgia State University. Libraries. Special Collections

Children of the Confederacy riding in the Memorial Day Parade in front of the Carnegie Library, Atlanta, Georgia, 1910

Children of the Confederacy from Miss Hannah's school. Memorial day parade 1910. In front of Carnegie Library, Carnegie Way.

<h2>North/South Dichotomy</h2>
In 1913, Atlanta was less than fifty years removed from the Civil War. Economic divides and resentments between North and South remained. The siege and burning of Atlanta, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and Reconstruction were bitter memories for many Southerners, and the Southern economy still lagged behind the rest of the country.
People and industry from the North migrated to the South after the Civil War. Many Northerners who came to the South did so for economic reasons, and brought with them capital and experience. Although the money was welcome, Northerners who owned businesses were often resented and deemed “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags.”
Resentment of Northern-controlled industry is exemplified by this quote from the Atlanta Constitution on  April 27, 1913, by Dr. Charles Lee: “Our principles were not defeated when we surrendered at Appomattox. . . .There are other enemies, bitter ones, that must be fought—emigration, labor, the double standard of child labor and white slavery. . .” In this historical re-imagining, slavery becomes the crisis of child and female exploitation created by outsiders, but against which native-born white Americans from North and South could ultimately unite.
In Southern states, the Confederacy was cherished and romanticized. Confederate Memorial Day, established in 1874 and observed in Georgia on April 26, annually featured parades with Confederate veterans. In 1913, Georgia’s Confederate Memorial Day fell on a Saturday and a large parade was held in Atlanta to celebrate the holiday.

Children of the Confederacy. Photograph taken around 1910. Photograph shows the C. C. Sanders Chapter of Children of the Confederacy of Longstreet Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Courtesy of the Hall County Library System via Digital Library of Georgia. Cite as: Children of the Confederacy, Hall County, Georgia historical photograph collection, Hall County Library System.

Courtesy of the University of California via HathiTrust. Public domain. Learn more at http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use

Novelized from the play of the same name. Menendez. Civil War novels. 

Setting: Atlanta in 1913

Crime and Trial

Sentence, Appeals, Commutation, Lynching

Legacy

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Image of a caricature entitled "For the Sunny South," published in 1913. It depicts an airplane with three well-dressed white passengers towing a "Jim Crow trailer," which is held aloft by a blimp. African American passengers are crowded onto the platform.

New Georgia Encyclopedia (Project); Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division

Racial tension in Atlanta exploded during a violent race riot in 1906, caused by sensationalist press reports (none verified) of white women attacked by African American men. White mobs attacked African Americans in streets, homes, and businesses over several days. Martial law was declared and state militia restored order. Dozens of African Americans were killed; many more were wounded.
In 1913, Atlanta’s population was one-third African American. Jim Crow laws mandated segregation for African Americans in all areas of life, denying them the right to vote and access to public areas and accommodations while discriminating against them in housing and employment. Jim Crow laws were the legal means of counteracting the freedoms that African Americans obtained after emancipation and the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. And often, they were supplemented and enforced using an extralegal method —lynching.
All African Americans were expected to act deferentially to white people; refusal could result in violence. Most lynching victims were African American men. Lynchings were horrific spectacles witnessed by large crowds that included children; the victim was often brutally tortured first. Accusations of rape were often impetus for lynching, but lynchings could also occur whenever an African American was accused of violating a Jim Crow law.

Image of four African American men standing and sitting outside a segregated railroad station in Manchester, Georgia in 1944. Signs above the doors read "Colored Men" and "Colored Waiting Room," indicating segregated facilities.

View of members of the Georgia State Militia halted on Marietta Street near Peachtree Street in the aftermath of a race riot in Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 took place from September 22 to September 26, 1906. An estimated 25 to 40 African Americans were killed along with two confirmed whites.

Courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center via Digital Library of Georgia. This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S Code) Permission for use must be cleared through The Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.

Tragedy in the New South: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank

Racial Violence

Racial Violence