Word: slaton
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...annals of history will echo this sin against God and his creatures unto eternity . . . May the memory of Governor John M. Slaton be a blessing to all who mourn his passing...
...this dislike of the South? Whenever TIME can dig at anything Southern, it doesn't miss a shot . . . Your article on Governor Slaton's death was only an excuse for publishing the incident about the lynching of Frank. Most of us would be glad to forget...
...There is no better illustration of racial prejudice . . . than an incident as the mob began gathering before Slaton's home, immediately after his courageous commutation of Frank's death sentence became known...
Lynching Day. Governor Slaton, after lengthy hearings and a deathbed appeal for clemency from the trial judge, commuted Frank's sentence to life imprisonment. "I can endure misconstruction, abuse and condemnation," he said, "but I cannot stand the constant companionship of an accusing conscience which would remind me that I, as governor of Georgia, failed to do what I thought to be right . . . It means that I must live in obscurity the rest of my days, but I would rather be plowing in a field than to feel that I had that blood on my hands...
...Governor Slaton knew that he was committing political suicide, but he was not prepared for the violence of the reaction. In Atlanta, a mob marched up Peachtree Street to the Governor's home, had to be driven off by armed militiamen. In Marietta (where Mary Phagan was born and buried), another mob of some 40 unmasked men was organized, drove off to Milledgeville penitentiary, where Frank was imprisoned. Brandishing guns, they forced their way inside and dragged Leo Frank from his bed. Then they drove the 150 miles back to Marietta and hanged Leo Frank from a pine tree...