An analysis of the Leo Frank case as a measure of the complexities
characterizing the relationship between African Americans and Jews
in America
In 1915 Leo Frank, a Northern Jew, was lynched in Georgia. He
had been convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan, a young white
woman who worked in the Atlanta pencil factory managed by Frank. In
a tumultuous trial in 1913 Frank's main accuser was Jim Conley, an
African American employee in the factory. Was Frank guilty?
In our time a martyr's aura falls over Frank as a victim of
religious and regional bigotry. The unending controversy has
inspired debates, movies, books, songs, and theatrical productions.
Among the creative works focused on the case are a ballad by
Fiddlin' John Carson, David Mamet's novel "The Old Religion" in
1997, and Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's musical "Parade" in
1998.
Indeed, the Frank case has become a touchstone in the history of
black-Jewish cultural relations. How- ever, for too long the trial
has been oversimplified as the moment when Jews recognized their
vulnerability in America and began to make common cause with
African Americans.
This study has a different tale to tell. It casts off old
political and cultural baggage in order to assess the cultural
context of Frank's trial, and to examine the stress placed on the
relationship of African Americans and Jews by it. The
interpretation offered here is based on deep archival research,
analyses of the court records, and study of various artistic
creations inspired by the case. It suggests that the case should be
understood as providing conclusive early evidence of the deep
mutual distrust between African Americans and Jews, a distrust that
has been skillfully and cynically manipulated by powerful white
people.
"Black-Jewish Relations on Trial" is concerned less with what
actually happened in the National Pencil Company factory than with
how Frank's trial, conviction, and lynching have been used as an
occasion to explore black-Jewish relations and the New South. Just
as with the O. J. Simpson trial, the Frank trial requires that
Americans make a profound examination of their essential beliefs
about race, sexuality, and power.
Jeffrey Melnick is an assistant professor of American studies at
Babson College and the author of "A Right to Sing the Blues:
African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song."
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