Seeking the reasons behind Jewish altruism toward African Americans, Hasia Diner shows how - in the wake of the Leo Frank trial and lynching in Atlanta - Jews came to see that their relative prosperity was no protection against the same social forces that threatened blacks. Jewish leaders and organizations genuinely believed in the cause of black civil rights, Diner suggests, but they also used that cause as a way of advancing their own interests - launching a vicarious attack on the nation that they felt had not lived up to its own ideals of freedom and equality.