A commemoration is planned Monday to mark 100 years since Leo Frank, a Jewish New Yorker living in Georgia, was lynched for a crime many believe he did not commit. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.

Leo Frank is buried at Old Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, the final resting place of a man whose death in Georgia exactly 100 years ago is now considered a tragic chapter in American history, involving anti-Semitism and injustice in the Deep South.

"He was persecuted. It's as simple as that," said Cynthia Zalisky, executive director of the Queens Jewish Community Council.

Raised in Brooklyn, educated at Cornell and Jewish, Frank was the manager of an Atlanta pencil factory in 1913 when a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, was murdered. He became a suspect after a man that historians believe was the real killer pointed the finger at him.

Frank was charged and convicted, a prosecution fanned by anti-Semitism and sensational press coverage.

"They were so prejudiced against him, they didn't care," Zalisky said.

Frank was sentenced to death but was given life in prison when the governor intervened. Outraged, a group of men kidnapped Frank from prison and lynched him. Fifteen thousand people turned out at the funeral.

The injustice gave rise to the Anti-Defamation League as a watchdog against anti-Semitism and hate. One hundred years later, the group says the Jewish community has come a long way, but the fight for equality isn't over.

"We are seeing it, not just in the Jewish community, but we see attacks on the Sikh community, we see attacks within the African-American community, we see attacks within all different kinds of minority groups," said Evan Bernstein, the New York regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

On Monday, the ADL and Jewish leaders from around the city will gather at Old Mount Carmel Cemetery at 2 p.m. to mark the 100th anniversary of Frank's death. Organizers say they're hoping the service will serve as a reminder of what can happen when people make decisions based on hate.

"Subsequently, the state of Georgia pardoned Leo Frank, but of course, by that point, he had already been killed," said City Councilman Rory Lancman of Queens. "But it's an important part of our history, and it's something that all of us should care very much about.

Lancman is encouraging the public and people of all faiths to attend.