Talia Suskauer and Max Chernin play Lucille and Leo Frank, within the nationwide excursion of Parade, a few Jewish guy falsely accused of homicide in 1913. Parade ends its excursion on the Kennedy Heart in Washington D.C., amid a upward thrust in antisemitic hate.
Joan Marcus
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Joan Marcus
The nationwide excursion of Parade, a Tony award-winning musical in regards to the real-life lynching of a Jewish guy in 1915, arrives on the Kennedy Heart this week amid President Trump’s takeover of the establishment, and an antisemitic backlash amplified by way of a member of the Trump management.
Parade, which results its nationwide excursion in Washington, dramatizes the homicide of Mary Phagan and the trial of Leo Frank, who’s broadly believed to had been falsely accused.
Although the case is greater than a century previous, it continues to spark controversy from the far-right —together with neo-Nazis, right-wing influencers, and the present press secretary on the Division of Protection, who has denied accusations of antisemitism. As NPR has reported, a number of distinguished officers within the Trump management have ties to antisemitic extremists and Holocaust deniers, even because the White Space says it’s keen on preventing antisemitic hate.
Trump’s transformation of the Kennedy Heart has integrated putting in himself as chairman and taking away what he calls “woke political programming.” In reaction, some artists have canceled their performances on the storied venue.
Jason Robert Brown, who wrote the tune and lyrics for Parade, took a unique manner.
“PARADE is enjoying the Kennedy Heart in August and we aren’t converting One Phrase,” he wrote on social media in February following Trump’s takeover.
In an e mail to NPR, Brown emphasised the significance of acting the display on the Kennedy Heart, which he known as “The united states’s degree.”
“PARADE is the tale of Mary Phagan and Leo Frank, sure, however greater than that, it has at all times been the tale of the currents of hatred operating beneath The united states,” Brown wrote. “As the ones currents appear these days to be overflowing their banks, I’m thankful for the chance to percentage our counternarrative.”
The Leo Frank trial: a media circus
The homicide of Mary Phagan and the trial of Leo Frank used to be some of the infamous true-crime spectacles of the early twentieth century.
Leo Frank
Library of Congress
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Library of Congress
Within the early 1900s, Frank labored because the superintendent of a pencil manufacturing facility in Atlanta. He used to be an interloper a number of instances over: a northerner in a southern town, an industrialist in an agricultural state, and a Jew in an overwhelmingly Christian society.
In 1913, 13-year-old Phagan, who labored on the manufacturing facility, used to be discovered useless within the development’s basement. Prosecutors, depending on scant proof, accused Frank of homicide. A Black janitor on the manufacturing facility, Jim Conley, claimed he had moved the useless frame to the basement at Frank’s request, regardless that his tale shifted over the years. Frank maintained his innocence.
The following trial turned into a media circus, warped by way of antisemitism, racism and the specter of mob violence. At the day of the decision, the pass judgement on stored Frank and his lawyer clear of the court docket, fearing an acquittal would spark vigilante violence.
Frank used to be convicted and sentenced to dying. Georgia’s governor commuted Frank’s sentence to existence in jail amid rising doubts in regards to the proof.
In reaction, Tom Watson, a white supremacist Georgia flesh presser and newspaper author, railed towards Frank as a “Jewish hunter of gentile ladies” and known as for his lynching. On Aug. 16, 1915, a bunch of fellows, together with some distinguished native leaders, stormed the jail the place Frank used to be being held, drove him to Phagan’s place of birth and hanged him from an oak tree. Footage of the lynching had been bought as postcards. The perpetrators had been by no means charged. Watson, who publicly incited and later defended the lynching, used to be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1920.
The incident fueled the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, but additionally the introduction of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish civil rights team. Historians have concluded that Frank used to be the sufferer of antisemitic prejudice and most likely blameless. In 1986, the state of Georgia pardoned Frank, on account of the state’s failure to give protection to him in custody and dangle his killers responsible.
Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown, middle, seem on the opening evening curtain name for the 2023 revival of Parade on Broadway. Uhry wrote the award-winning musical’s e book and Brown wrote the tune and lyrics.
Bruce Glikas/Getty Photographs
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Bruce Glikas/Getty Photographs
From historical past to the degree
Playwright Alfred Uhry grew up in Atlanta within the shadow of the Frank case. His circle of relatives used to be Jewish and knew the Franks, however he mentioned the tale of the lynching used to be shrouded in thriller.
“The German Jewish group used to be very small,” Uhry advised NPR in an interview. “But if I used to be born, no one mentioned it in any respect. I needed to move to the library to appear it up when I used to be a child. It used to be crucial to me so that you could inform the tale.”
Uhry, who gained an Oscar and Pulitzer Prize for the movie and play Riding Pass over Daisy, went on to write down the 1998 musical Parade about Frank’s case. Although the display gained Tony awards, Uhry mentioned it used to be no longer a big luck.
The 2023 Broadway revival of Parade made a miles larger mark.
“Both thankfully or sadly, the zeitgeist used to be with us that the item were given very well timed,” Uhry mentioned.
A part of that zeitgeist used to be the upward thrust of antisemitic hate.
In February 2023, a bunch of white supremacists protested the manufacturing, handing out leaflets calling Frank a “pedophile.”
“It regarded identical to the props within the display,” Uhry mentioned.
“The neo-Nazi playbook” strikes to the mainstream
The extremist claims about Leo Frank have unfold past neo-Nazis.
In March 2023 — only a few weeks after the protest outdoor of Parade made nationwide headlines — the suitable wing influencer Kingsley Wilson posted on social media in regards to the case.
Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old lady.
He additionally attempted to border a black guy for his crime.
The ADL is demonic. https://t.co/BGfjjxxAUh
— Kingsley Wilson (@KingsleyCortes) March 11, 2023
“Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old lady,” she wrote. “He additionally attempted to border a black guy for his crime. The ADL is demonic.”
(She later edited the put up to modify “demonic” to “despicable,” consistent with the put up’s edit historical past on X.)
The next 12 months she repeated the accusation in line with the ADL’s commemoration of the anniversary of Frank’s lynching.
Previous this 12 months, Wilson joined the Trump Management. She now serves as press secretary for the Division of Protection.
The American Jewish Committee known as Wilson “not worthy” for place of job, writing that she used to be sharing “antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted correct out of the neo-Nazi playbook.”
Kingsley Wilson these days serves as press secretary on the Division of Protection. Wilson has denied accusations that she has promoted antisemitism.
Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Division of Protection
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Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Division of Protection
At a traumatic Senate listening to, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth defended Wilson.
“She does an unbelievable activity,” Hegseth mentioned. “And any recommendation that I or her or others are birthday celebration to antisemitism is a mischaracterization making an attempt to win political issues.”
“Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson hasn’t ever promoted antisemitism,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned in a observation to NPR. “The ADL and different left-wing teams love it have erroneously attacked Mrs. Wilson’s personality as a result of she is a fighter for President Trump and a devoted solider [sic] of Secretary Hegseth. We will be able to proceed to brush aside this false accusation and concentrate on turning in President Trump’s The united states First schedule on the Division of Protection.”
The Pentagon declined to respond to NPR’s query about whether or not Wilson stands by way of her social media posts in regards to the Frank case, which stay on-line.
The far-right influencer and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens has additionally promoted antisemitic theories about Frank on a number of episodes of her podcast.
“He appears to be like evil to me,” Owens mentioned in a single episode from 2024.
Owens has woven the Frank case right into a broader antisemitic narrative that alleges that Judaism and the state of Israel advertise pedophilia.
Oren Segal, the senior vp of counter-extremism and intelligence on the ADL, advised NPR in an interview that those narratives have migrated from extremist circles to the mainstream. He famous that the upward thrust of the QAnon conspiracy idea, which incorporates allegations of an international pedophile ring, has helped extremists repackage century-old hatred towards Frank for the social media age.
“Greater than 100 years later, the antisemitic mob nonetheless exists,” mentioned Segal. “They only will not be at the streets of Georgia, however they is also on each social media channel that all of us exist on. And so in many ways, it is the similar hatred, however the achieve is far, a lot farther.”
Uhry declined to touch upon Wilson’s posts about Frank, pronouncing he sought after the point of interest to stay at the artistry of Parade.
Creator-composer Brown, in his e mail to NPR, drew a pointy connection between the previous and provide, noting the contrasting figures of Watson, the white supremacist flesh presser who incited Frank’s lynching, and Georgia Gov. John Slaton, who commuted Frank’s sentence in spite of threats to his personal existence.
“112 years after the homicide of Mary Phagan, the vile racist incitements spewed by way of Tom Watson proceed to be repeated by way of other folks on the best ranges of our executive,” he wrote, “and the bravery of Governor Slaton stays an impressive instance of the hazards we should be ready to take to battle towards injustice on this nation. You can’t inform the tale of The united states with out telling the tale of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan.”
