Joseph Mackey Brown

Brown was born in Canton, Georgia and was the son of Georgia's Civil War Governor Joseph E. Brown. The family nickname of the younger Brown was "Little Joe Brown".

After graduating from Oglethorpe University in 1872 (where he joined Chi Phi fraternity), Brown attended Harvard University for a time to study law. He continued his studies at his brother's Georgia law practice and passed the bar in 1873; however, he never practiced law due to failing eyesight. He continued his studies at an Atlanta, Georgia business college and became a clerk with the Western and Atlantic Railroad. During his career at the railroad he rose to the position of traffic manager for the company, and he married Cora Annie McCord.

In 1904, Brown was appointed to the Georgia State Railroad Commission by then-Governor Joseph M. Terrell. That appointment was rescinded in 1907 when the new Governor, Hoke Smith, removed Brown over disagreements about passenger fares.

Brown exacted revenge by running against Smith in the 1908 gubernatorial election and winning. Smith again won the governorship in the election of 1910 by beating Brown in the Democratic primary and in the general election in which Brown ran as an independent. Smith left before the end of his second term to assume the United States Senate seat that became vacant upon the death of Alexander S. Clay, and Brown ran unopposed to become Governor again for the rest of Smith's original term.

Brown faced Smith once again in the 1914 election for the Senate seat previously filled by Smith. Smith won that election.

Brown also wrote two books, The Mountain Campaigns in Georgia (1886) and Astyanax (1907), served as director and vice president of the First National Bank of Marietta, and owned and operated Cherokee Mills in Marietta.{{cite journal|last1=Wheeler|first1=Kenneth H.|last2=Cowart|first2=Jennifer Lee|title=Who Was the Real Gus Coggins?: Social Struggle and Criminal Mystery in Cherokee County, 1912-1927|journal=Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=Winter 2013|volume=97|issue=4|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=101380904&site=eds-live|access-date=20 June 2016}}Alphin, Elaine Marie An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank Carolrhoda Books, 2010, p. 117Oney, Steve (2004), And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank, New York and Toronto: Pantheon Books, {{ISBN|978-0-679-42147-4}}

On August 17, 1915, he was involved in the murder of Leo Frank, according to Professor Stephen Goldfarb.{{cite news| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/06/20/a-lynching-a-list-and-reopened-wounds/abbd6f3c-5d87-490a-b828-ecd87bf7f5f8/| title = A Lynching, a List and Reopened Wounds - The Washington Post| newspaper = The Washington Post}}

Brown died in 1932 in Marietta, Georgia and is buried in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2138&hl=y The New Georgia Encyclopedia entry for Joseph M. Brown]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060622212513/http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/tdgh-mar/mar03.htm This Day in Georgia History:March 3, Ed Jackson and Charly Pou, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia]
• [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-9389 Portrait of Joseph M. Brown]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060118235505/http://www.gashpo.org/assets/documents/ga_govs_graves_field_guide.pdf Georgia Governor's Gravesites Field Guide (1776-2003)]}}
• [http://vault.georgiaarchives.org/cdm/ref/collection/campaign/id/101 Joseph M. Brown campaign button]
• {{cite web|title=Presidential Party before Memorial of Archibald Butt, Augusta, Ga., 1912. Breakfast at Residence of Thos. Barrett, Jr.|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/vang/id:ric103|website=Vanishing Georgia|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=20 June 2016}}
• [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8z24z Joseph M. Brown Papers] at [https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, Emory University]

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Category:1851 births

Category:1932 deaths

Category:Democratic Party governors of Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta)

Category:Harvard Law School alumni

Category:Oglethorpe University alumni

Category:American white supremacists

Category:Lynching in the United States

Category:People from Canton, Georgia

Category:Writers from Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:20th-century Georgia (U.S. state) politicians

Category:20th-century American murderers