Ossian Sweet

Ossian Sweet (Aussprache [ŏshʼən swēt]) (30 October 1895 - 20 March 1960) was an African American physician. He is most noted for the murder trial he was a part of following the defense of his newly-purchased home located in a white neighborhood against a white mob attempting to force him out in Detroit, Michigan in 1925, and the acquittal of murder charges of his family by an all-white jury.

Biography

Early years

Sweet was born the second son to Henry Sweet and Dora Devaughn in Orlando, Florida just eight days before the death of his oldest brother, Oscar. In 1898 the family moved and his father purchased land in Bartow, Florida where the children all helped with in the fields and with the farm animals. At age six, Ossian witnessed the lynching and conflagration of Fred Rochelle which tormented him throughout his life when faced with extreme race prejudice. By the time he turned 13 his parents knew they would have to send him away to school so that he would be safe and fulfill the dreams that freedom from slavery brought with it. Scared to leave without God's blessing he visited St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church before boarding the train to the North.

Education

In September 1909, Sweet's parents decided that he would attend Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio because they believed that the school shared important family values and that he would be safe from the escalating racial violence in Bartow. With tuition being US$118 a year, Sweet took work shoveling snow and stoking furnaces to pay his way. He would attend Wilberforce for eight years, the first four of which were spent in prep-school studying Latin, history, mathematics, English, music, drawing, philosophy, social and introductory science and a foreign language (probably French). In 1913, he began his university studies to achieve a degree in science on his way to becoming a doctor which he felt would demand great respect.

While at Wilberforce, Sweet was a charter member Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and a member of the cadet corps, in which he learned such skills as first aid and small-arms fire. He earned his undergraduate degree at Wilberforce University in 1917 and went on to study medicine at Howard University in Washington D.C., one of the two remaining black medical schools after the American Medical Association (AMA) had set it's new standards that the other 5 black medical schools simply could not meet.

Throughout Sweet's early life he demonstrated a very clear dedication to school and overcoming the life of a Southern black. Sweet's parents were one of many families to suffer the tough goodbyes of sending their young children away to be educated but hoped for the possibility of him escaping the things he had witnesed in Bartow, and wanted to see their son provided with the options that the South could not offer. Sweet was the leader in his family and paved the way for his younger siblings to work hard and become educated as well, but one of most pressing impacts of his experince at Wilberforce and later Howard was his growing knowledge and desire to be recongized as part of the Talented Tenth.

Career

Even with his extensive medical knowledge, Sweet encountered difficulty finding work at a hospital due to his race. But his summers waiting at Detroit restaurants instilled him with the knowledge of black bottom's need for medical care. Black bottom was an overpopulated black ghetto in which migrant workers from the south and immigrants from other countries made their home during the great migration. This overpopulation and steady influx of people, who lacked of medical care amid cramped quarters, created a dangerous environment where diseases could easily spread without pause. According to Kevin Boyle in "Arc of Justice" "Rudimentary care would have saved some of them. But black bottom didn't get even that." Ossian saw this as an opportunity to practice his medicine. In exchange for office space, Ossian paid the local pharmacy the sum of US$100. His first client Elizabeth Riley feared she had contracted tetanus because her jaw grew stiff. When Sweet was able to diagnose that it was not an infection but rather a dislocated jaw he reset the bone and to his benefit helped spread a good word about his practice throughout the neighborhood.

Personal life

The Ossian Sweet house at 2905 Garland.

He met a woman from a prominent middle class black family named Gladys at a dance whom he later married at St. Matthews Church December 20, 1922. Soon after they married he left his practice and on October 6, 1923 headed to Vienna to listen in on lectures by Surgeon Anton Von Eiselberg whom had helped create the field of neurosurgery and then in Paris, where he studied what Madame Curie had to teach about isolating radium. While he did not receive a degree for this study and extended stay in Europe, it brought him the prestige he sought to further exhibit himself as part of the "talented tenth" of black society. In Paris he was also able to experience what life would be like without prejudices. For the first time, the Sweets were treated as equals to whites. His only experience with prejudice while in Europe was at an American Hospital where he intended for Gladys to give birth and so donated 300 francs, which was nothing to scoff at but when the time neared he was informed that many of the white patients would feel uncomfortable to share the ward with a black woman and so were turned away. Rightly so, this infuriated him and reminded Ossian of the world to which he would return.

Returning to Detroit from France in 1924, he began work at Dunbar Hospital, Detroit's first black hospital started by 11 black doctor's that decided Detroit and it's African Americans needed a hospital where they would not face prejudice. In time he saved enough money, and moved his family in 1925 from his wife's parent's home in an all-white neighborhood to 2905 Garland Street, another all-white neighborhood at Garland and Charlevoix. The house on Garland, known as the Ossian H. Sweet House, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although Ossian could now afford to move out into a white neighborhood, the price he had to pay was staggering. African Americans at this time had to pay a hefty premium simply because they were black and without any way around it, Ossian agreed to the high price. When moving into his new home he and his wife had received threats about moving onto Garland and so thought it best to leave their baby daughter Iva with Gladys' parents for the first few days, but Iva was not the only one in danger a friend of the Sweets phoned police asking for their protection of this family from any troube that might presumably arise (Given the threats).

Home invasion

In a reaction to the violence recently shown driving out African Americans from Detroit's white neighborhoods, Ossian decided that it would be best if for the first few nights, they were not alone. He invited some friends, colleagues, and even some acquintances for the first few nights of which they had agreed to, understanding the dangers of crossing the color line and doing so alone with a white mob of people wanting their own way and 'justice'. Although police officers were present day and night, with several hundred on reserve, Ossian felt that he could not rely on white policemen to risk their own lives if things took a turn for the worst and so, he brought several small arms and ammunitions to his new home and hid them away on the second floor should they need to protect their lives by taking others.

In the following days, Sweet's house was repeatedly surrounded by white mobs in the evenings, encouraged by the "Waterworks Improvement Association," which gathered outside the Sweet residence to force him to move from the neighborhood. On September 8th 1925, the first white mob of neighbors surrounded the Sweet's house. There were any where between one hundred and two hundred men, women, and children watching the Sweet's house. During this time of racial prejudice where a white officer serving the 'people' was just as likely to be a member of the KKK it was difficult to believe he would not simply allow the white mob to pass through due to bias in his own beliefs. The Sweet family and their friends would not sleep comfortably that night, ever waiting for the tipping point that wouldn't be reached that evening. The following night, at around 10 p.m. on Thursday, September 9 1925, Leon Breiner, one member of the mob, was shot dead, and another was injured. The shots were fired from the second floor of the Sweet's house by his brother Henry. The firing of the shots into the street by Henry was preceded by the barrage of stones being launched at the home by the white mob which damaged the home, shattering a second floor window, and stirring the occupants inside to arm themselves and react. Boyle described it as "Stones were raining down from across the street, smashing into the lawn, crashing onto the painted wooden floor." Shortly after the shots went off everyone in the Sweet's house was arrested and taken to the police station and questioned for hours before being put in jail.

All eleven occupants of the house (Sweet, his wife Gladys, two brothers and a number of friends) were arrested and tried for murder by a jury presided over by young judge Frank Murphy. The prosecution was represented by Robert Toms.

Trial

When James Weldon Johnson, the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) saw this story, he also saw it's potential right away. The communication between him and W. Hayes McKinney of the Detroit NAACP branch, would launch it's next great campaign.

With their help, the defense headed by Clarence Darrow, assisted by Arthur Garfield Hays and Walter M. Nelson successfully construed the fear that had assailed Sweet and his friends, and also asked whether the jury of 12 whites would be able to forsake their racial differences and give a "Negro" a fair trial. The jury was unable to form a verdict after 46 hours of deliberations, and a mistrial was declared.

The defense then elected to hold eleven separate trials. Sweet's younger brother, Henry, who admitted to actually firing the gun, was tried first and defended again by Darrow with Detroit lawyer Thomas Chawke replacing Hays who was tied into another case and could not commit to a trial just yet. He was to everyone's surprise and great content, acquitted after a deliberation of less than four hours. Judge Murphy's instructions to the jury are available. The prosecution as thought, then dropped the remaining charges against the other defendants.

The two closing arguments of Clarence Darrow from the first and second trials are available, and show how he learned from the first trial and reshaped his remarks.

The trial was presided over by the Honorable Frank Murphy, who went on to become Governor of Michigan and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Aftermath

Following the trial Sweet returned home to live with his daughter and wife but their happiness did not last long if at all. Well, Sweet had finally achieved his goal as being a recongized memeber of the Talented Tenth his troubles in life were only continuing despite his achievements.

Sweet's later life was troubled. Leon Breiner's wife, the indivdual killed in the attack on Sweet's home, sued for US$150,000, but the case was dismissed by the judge. His wife and daughter had contracted tuberculosis, surely from their time incarcerated in Wayne County Jail and so Gladys took Iva to live in tucson Arizona where they believed the hot, dry air would be better for their damaged lungs while Ossian remained at Dunbar. Iva passed away and for two years man and wife lived apart before Gladys went home in 1928 to their bungalow (Which had until recently been shuttered) where she would pass away a few months later at the age of 27. Ossian experienced the financial success he had always dreamed of when he was working through school, he bought Garafalo's Drugstore and left his Dunbar post to work in several small rival hospitals in the center of black bottom. Sweet's financial success however was accompanied by more losses and failures. After Gladys' death he remarried twice, both ending in divorce, the second with accusations of physical abuse.

Ossian loved the public light he was in during his trial and attempted to use that to continue in a public role. He made a bid for presidency of the NAACP Detroit branch in 1930 against the same men who had rushed to his aid. They were not pleased and were unforgiving for this action. He also ran for a seat in the State Senate, as well as for U.S. Congress, losing both times.

His brother Henry would go on to earn a law degree from Howard University, and in 1930 became the president of the association's Michigan conference. in the summer of 1939 however, he learned that he too, had contracted tuberculosis, the same disease that killed Gladys and Iva and so six months later, Henry sweet died. By 1950 even Ossian's finances had begun to fail him and rather than face foreclosure he sold the bungalow to a good honest black family of southern migrants looking to raise their family free of discrimination. Without his home on Garland Ossian moved back into his office above Garafalo's in black bottom. On March 20, 1960 after all his loss, suffering, and torment of being alone, Ossian Sweet committed suicide by picking up a handgun and shooting himself in the head.

Legacy

• Ossian Sweet House registered historical site #S0461
• Michigan Legal Milestones commemorative plaque in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, Detroit
• The Sweet Trials: a play adapted by Kevin Boyle from his book, Arc of Justice
• Malice Aforethought: The Sweet Trials: a play written by Arthur Beer, adapted from Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice.

Further reading

• Clarence Darrow: The Story of My Life. C. Scribner's Sons, New York 1932, OCLC 390064, Chapter 34: The Negro in the North. 
• Clarence Darrow: Verdicts Out of Court. Quadrangle Books, Chicago 1963, OCLC 193194, The Problem of the Negro. 

• Haldeman-Julius, Marcet, Clarence Darrow's Two Greatest Trials: Reports of the Scopes Anti-Evolution Case and the Dr. Sweet Negro Trial (Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1927).
• Harris, Paul, Black Rage Confronts the Law (NYU Press 1997). ISBN 0814735274 320.
• Hays, Arthur Garfield, Let Freedom Ring, "Freedom of Residence" (1928).
• Levine, David Allan, Internal Combustion: The Races in Detroit 1915-1926 (Greenwood 1976).
• Ossian Sweet Murder Trial Scrapbook, 1925. Scrapbook and photocopy of the November 1925 murder trial of Ossian Sweet. Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.
• Stone, Irving, Clarence Darrow for the Defense, "Road to Glory" (Doubleday 1941).
• Tierney, Kevin, Darrow: A Biography, "The Sweet Trials" (Crowell 1979).
• Toms, Robert, Speech on the Sweet murder trials upon retirement of the prosecuting attorney in 1960, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.
• Unofficial Transcript of the Henry Sweet Trial, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library (prepared by NAACP).
• Vine, Phyllis. One Man's Castle: Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream. (New York: Amistad, 2005). ISBN 9780066214153.
• Weinberg, Arthur, Editor, Attorney for the Damned, "You Can't Live There!" (1957).
• Weinberg, Kenneth G., A Man's Home, A Man's Castle (McCall 1971).

External links

• 'I have to die a man or live a coward'
• Ossian Sweet House
• Key figures in the Sweet trials
• Article at crimelibrary.com on the Sweet trials.
• The Sweet Trials University of Detroit Mercy.
• The Sweet Trials home page, Famous American Trials, University of Missouri, Kansas City