93 years after the lynching death of Jewish businessman Leo Frank, Georgia elected officials, Jewish leaders and historical preservationists dedicated a state historical marker March 7 on the site in Marietta where Frank was hanged.
The unveiling ceremony took place at 1200 Roswell Road in Marietta and featured remarks by Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens, State Senator Steve Thompson, former Gov. Roy Barnes, Cobb County Rabbi Steven Lebow and representatives of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Leo Frank, manager of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, was convicted of the murder of 13-year-old factory employee Mary Phagan of Marietta in 1913. On August 17, 1915, after his sentence was commuted from death to life in prison by Governor John Slaton, Frank was abducted from the state prison in Milledgeville, driven to Marietta and hanged.
The marker is the first official recognition by the state of the site where Frank died.
The Georgia Historical Society, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, Congregation Kol Emeth and the ADL worked together to have the location of the lynching recognized as a historic site.
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