Reviews
Review by: John Pruitt, retired WSB-TV news anchor and author of TELL IT TRUE - June 2, 2025
"I AM A GEORGIA GIRL is the story Ann Hite has yearned to tell since she was nine years old. That's when her grandmother shared with her the horrific experience of seeing Leo Frank's body hanging from a tree limb, the victim of a lynch mob avenging the murder of Mary Phagan. Hite delves into this sad chapter of Georgia history by focusing on Frank's wife, Lucille. It's a remarkable portrait of a quiet but strong young woman courageously defending her beloved husband against insurmountable forces that ultimately ripped him from her forever. The roles of Lucille Frank and other women swept up in the Leo Frank saga have often been underreported. Thanks to Ann Hite for so vividly bringing their stories to life against the backdrop of one of Georgia's most infamous episodes."
Review by: Jeff Clemmons, author of RICH'S: A SOUTHERN INSTITUTION - June 2, 2025
"Many of us know the story of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan--the murder, tabloid trial, 'guilty' verdict, and lynching, which led to a rise in antisemitism, a rebirth of the Klan, and the birth of the Anti-Defamation League. But the story we don't know is that of Leo's wife, Lucille. Now, for the first time, Ann Hite's I AM A GEORGIA GIRL gives Lucille a voice, and it's a poignant one rendering a heart-breaking story. No longer bound by society and forced to bear silent witness to the events that surrounded her husband, Lucille (and Ann) gives an indictment on race, class, religion, gender, and history that must not be ignored. History cannot be allowed to repeat itself."
Review by: Carolyn Newton Curry, award-winning author of TRUDY'S AWAKENING - June 2, 2025
"In this new biography, I AM A GEORGIA GIRL, Ann Hite reexamines the horrific lynching of Leo Frank which occurred in Georgia on August 17, 1915. He was accused of murdering the thirteen-year-old factory worker, Mary Phagan. With extensive research and meticulous writing, Hite looks at the hatred, antisemitism, and mob violence of vigilantism which was rampant at the time. But she concentrates on the life of the young wife of Leo Frank, Lucille, who spent the rest of her life trying to prove his innocence. Her life was shattered, too. This is an important book for which Hite should be commended."
Review by: Robert Gwaltney, award-winning author of THE CICADA TREE - June 2, 2025
"I AM A GEORGIA GIRL Ann Hite's nonfiction feat, gleams with precision, humanity, and expert storytelling. This tautly rendered, compelling account of the courageous life of Lucille Selig Frank and events surrounding the 1915 lynching of her husband, Leo Max Frank, weaves the timely and momentous story of gross injustice, antisemitism, and the suppression of women's voices. Lucille Selig Frank would be proud."
Review by: McCracken Poston Jr., author of ZENITH MAN - June 2, 2025
"The late University of Georgia law professor Donald Eugene Wilkes, Jr., introduced generations of his students to the horrifying story of injustice that Ann Hite so well recounts here, with excellent research and narrative, in her book I AM A GEORGIA GIRL. I was shocked to be reminded how relatively recently this happened, Lucille Frank being the age of my grandparents. I have friends who are descendants from families on both sides of this horror story, and a statue of one of the most culpable in causing this horrific injustice still stands on the Georgia State Capitol grounds. We must keep this story, raw and painful to read today, ever-present in our minds, as Professor Wilkes was intending. The words of George Santayana, who said 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,' underline the importance of reading this book."