| Eugene Herbert Clay | |
| Office: | Mayor of Marietta, Georgia |
| Term Start: | 1911 |
| Term End: | 1912 |
| Birth Date: | October 3, 1881 |
| Birth Place: | Marietta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Children: | Eugene Herbert Clay, Jr. |
| Parents: | Senator Alexander S. Clay and Frances (White) Clay |
| Relations: | General Lucius D. Clay |
| Residence: | Marietta, Georgia |
| Alma Mater: | University of Georgia, Mercer University |
Eugene Herbert Clay (October 3, 1881 - June 22, 1923) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Marietta, Georgia, and one of the ringleaders in the lynching of Leo Frank.[1] [2]
He was born in Marietta, Georgia to Senator Alexander S. Clay and Frances (White) Clay.[3] Clay attended the University of Georgia and the Mercer University, graduating in from the latter with an LL.B.[3] [4] He was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity.[3] [4] He served as the mayor of Marietta, Georgia from 1911 to 1912.[3] He was twice elected Solicitor General of the Blue Ridge Circuit and served on the State Democratic Committee.[3]
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.[1]
He married Virginia Hudson of Pocahontas, Virginia, on December 27, 1919.[3] He also had one son, Eugene Herbert Clay, Jr., by a prior marriage.[3] In the fall of 1920, he was elected to the Georgia Senate.[3] He was president of the Georgia Senate as of 1922.[3] On June 22, 1923, Clay died suddenly of a heart attack in the Wilmot Hotel at Atlanta, Georgia.[5]
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.