Eugene Herbert Clay

Eugene Herbert Clay (October 3, 1881–June 22, 1923) was the mayor of Marietta, Georgia, and one of the ringleaders in the lynching of Leo Frank.[2][3]

Eugene Herbert Clay
Mayor of Marietta, Georgia
In office
1911–1912
Personal details
BornOctober 3, 1881
Marietta, Georgia
DiedJune 22, 1923 (1923-06-23) (aged 41)
Marietta, Georgia
NationalityAmerican
RelationsGeneral Lucius D. Clay
ChildrenEugene Herbert Clay, Jr.
ParentsSenator Alexander S. Clay and Frances (White) Clay
ResidenceMarietta, Georgia[1]
Alma materUniversity of Georgia, Mercer University

He was born in Marietta, Georgia to Senator Alexander S. Clay and Frances (White) Clay.[1][4] Clay attended the University of Georgia and the Mercer University, graduating in from the latter with an LL.B.[1][4] He was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity.[1][4] He served as the mayor of Marietta, Georgia from 1911 to 1912.[1] He was twice elected Solicitor General of the Blue Ridge Circuit and served on the State Democratic Committee.[1]

In 1915, he helped plan the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish-American factory superintendent whose murder conviction and extrajudicial hanging in 1915 by a lynch mob drew attention to questions of antisemitism in the United States.[2]

He married Virginia Hudson of Pocahontas, Virginia on December 27, 1919.[1] He also had one son, Eugene Herbert Clay, Jr., by a prior marriage.[1] In the fall of 1920, he was elected to the Georgia Senate.[1] He was president of the Georgia Senate as of 1922.[1] He died in Marietta, Georgia.[4]

His youngest brother was General Lucius D. Clay a senior officer of the United States Army who was later known for his administration of occupied Germany after World War II.

Notes
  1. Daniel Decatur Moore (1922). Men of the South: A Work for the Newspaper Reference Library. Southern Biographical Association. p. 434. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. Oney, Steve And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank
  3. Alphin, Elaine Marie Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank
  4. Chi Phi (1924). The Chi Phi Fraternity, Centennial Memorial Volume. The Council. p. 216.


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