| − | '''Leo Max Frank''' (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915) was a young Jewish man who was lynched in 1915 in Marietta, [[Georgia]] by a mob of white supremacists. After being falsely accused and convicted of the murder and molestation of a young girl named Mary Phagan in 1913, Frank's legal team worked to have his sentence commuted from death to life in prison. The judge eventually decided to commute his sentence, and shortly afterward, Frank was stolen from his prison cell, driven to Marietta, and hanged by the neck from a tree until he was dead. | + | '''Leo Max Frank''' (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915) was a young Jewish man who was lynched in 1915 in Marietta, [[Georgia]] by a mob of white supremacists. After being falsely accused and convicted of the murder and molestation of a young girl named Mary Phagan in 1913, Frank's legal team worked to have his sentence commuted from death to life in prison. The judge eventually decided to commute his sentence, and shortly afterward, Frank was abducted from his prison cell, driven to Marietta, and hanged by the neck from a tree until he was dead. |
| | Leo's case underscores the dangers of fake news, as the journalist Thomas Dixon, Jr. whipped up racist, [[anti-Semitic]] hysteria during his trial and later. Another demagogue who incited the lynching was [[far-left]] Democrat Thomas E. Watson, later a brief U.S. senator from Georgia.<ref>[https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/thomas-e-watson-1856-1922 Thomas E. Watson (1856-1922)]. ''New Georgia Encyclopedia''. Retrieved September 28, 2021.</ref> | | Leo's case underscores the dangers of fake news, as the journalist Thomas Dixon, Jr. whipped up racist, [[anti-Semitic]] hysteria during his trial and later. Another demagogue who incited the lynching was [[far-left]] Democrat Thomas E. Watson, later a brief U.S. senator from Georgia.<ref>[https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/thomas-e-watson-1856-1922 Thomas E. Watson (1856-1922)]. ''New Georgia Encyclopedia''. Retrieved September 28, 2021.</ref> |