Ossian Sweet

Ossian Sweet (Aussprache [ŏshʼən swēt]) (30 October 1895 - 20 March 1960) was an American physician. He is most notable for his self defense in 1925 of his newly-purchased home against a white mob attempting to force him out in Detroit, Michigan, and the subsequent acquittal on 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. Henry Sweet was a slave in Florida and because of the Emancipation Proclamation Henry was able to buy land in Bartow, Florida in 1898, where he moved his entire family. There they lived in a small farmhouse Ossian’s parents had built and all the children helped with the farm animals and in the fields. The Sweets had a total of ten children living in cramped quarters and living on the little money they could earn through their farm. At age six, Sweet witnessed the lynching of Fred Rochelle who lived a few blocks away from the Sweets. Rochelle had been accused of raping a white girl and was set afire and murdered. Sweet watched traumatized from the bushes as the flames engulfed Rochelle's body. “He’d recount it with frightening specificity: the smell of the kerosene, Rochelle’s screams as he was engulfed in flames, the crowd’s picking off pieces of charred flesh to take home as souvenirs.[1]” This memory would haunt Ossian Sweet throughout his life, especially in his later years when he would have to face his own mob of angry whites.

Education

In September 1909, Sweet left Florida at age thirteen. Sweet's parents had taught him everything they could, instilling in him religious traditions that had sustained the family through generations of struggle.[2] That is why they wanted Ossian to go North and get an education. He was sent to Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio. Wilberforce University was one of few African American Colleges of that time and was funded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Wilberforce is where Ossian became a charter member Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and was where he earned a Bachelors of Science at the age of 25. 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 foreign language (probably French). Sweet took work shoveling snow, stoking furnaces, washing dirty dishes, waiting tables, and carting luggage up hotel stairs to pay for his tuition and books ($118 US). From Wilberforce University, Ossian attended Howard University in Washington D.C. where he earned his medical accreditation. 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 the hope that Ossian would be presented with opportunities not available in the South as well as the possibility of Ossian escaping the horrible things he had witnessed in Bartow, led his parents to this decision. Sweet became the leader in his family and paved the way for his younger siblings to work hard and become educated as well. One of the most pressing impacts of his experience at Wilberforce and later at Howard was his growing knowledge and goal to be recognized as part of the Talented Tenth. The Talented Tenth is the idea that one in ten African American individuals could become leaders in their race through continuation of education, writing books, and becoming involved in the overall picture of social change.

Ossian Sweet and The Red Summer

Ossian Sweet was attending Howard University, a leader in Black medical education, in 1919 when he personally witnessed the Washington D.C. race riot. Like so many cities in the summer of 1919, Washington D.C. had been stretched to its breaking point. Black migrants from the south had come pouring into the city's main Black areas with the promise of wartime jobs, but in 1919 with the end of the war the promise was no longer there, although new migrants were pouring into the city everyday. Thousands of White soldiers were held on the outskirts of Washington D.C. while waiting to be discharged from their service in the Great War. Boredom eventually hit; and when it did, a riot broke that lasted five days and left 6 dead and 150 wounded. Sweet was just four blocks from where Black Washington made its stand, but could not leave his fraternity; Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, attributes his lack of composure in this harsh time to fear, and he had good reason. Sweet was “walking down the street when a gang of whites descended on a passing streetcar, pulled a black passenger down to the sidewalk, and beat him mercilessly.” Boyle later states that Sweet did not venture from his house because he was escaping the memories of his past, a true emotion for Sweet, and one that would not leave him until his death.

Detroit & Black Bottom

With little money Ossian arrived in Detroit in late summer of 1921 when Detroit was at the beginning of a moral collapse. Detroit at this time was a time of speakeasies, jazz music, liquor, and slumming also a time when drugs, gambling, and prostitution swept the city. Detroit was not always in this state of disrepair. According to Kevin Boyle in 1910 Detroit was on its way to become an industrial powerhouse. A booming modern metropolis paved the way for the growth of the auto industry; around 1913 the pull for jobs on the assembly lines fueled enormous migration to Detroit. In 1910 the population of Detroit was approx. 485,000, by 1920 it had more than doubled. As migration increased so did segregation.

"Despite its name, Black Bottom wasn't really a colored area. Most of its residents were immigrants, not negroes,” states Boyle. Black Bottom was a neighborhood of the poor working class peoples of Detroit. Boyle describes Black Bottom in his book as dingy and rundown, room were barely large enough to fit families, and in large sections of the neighborhood advertised rooms were rooms filled with stained and soiled abutting mattresses covering the floors were groups of residents slept. Homes in central Black Bottom were decaying, when it rained water would flood through the ceilings, wind came through holes in the walls where the plaster had cracked off, and many of the windows had no glass. Boyle gives evidence that discrimination in the real estate market, agents sometimes refused to even show homes in white neighborhoods they feared black occupancy would bring down property values, primarily kept these migrants in Black Bottom. With no place else to go Black Bottom remained in demand of the poor working class and landlords saw no need to make improvements to the living quarters. These poor living conditions lead to the constant threat of infection and spread of disease, many died of smallpox, pneumonia, and syphilis. 1n the 1960s Black Bottom was demolished during the city's urban renewal program. Black Bottom also became the name of a popular dance in the Florida/New Orleans areas between 1926-27. It was performed at the Apollo Theater and was modeled after young black children’s imitations of cows stuck in the mud.

Video Link: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGPnPHrrZeA>

Career

Even with his extensive medical knowledge, Sweet encountered difficulty finding work at a hospital due to his ethnicity, 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 made their homes during the Great Migration. These proto ghettos where extremely poor, unsanitary and had few sources of water, not to mention that they where mainly build in places that were environmentally unhealthy. This overpopulation and steady influx of migrants, who lacked medical care amid cramped quarters, caused diseases and created imminent threat to life. According to Kevin Boyle in Arc of Justice, “rudimentary care could have saved some of them. But Black Bottom didn’t get even that.” Sweet saw this as an opportunity to practice his medicine. He gave $100 to a pharmacy, “Palace Drugs,” in exchange for office space. His first client, Elizabeth Riley who feared she had contracted tetanus because her jaw grew stiff, Sweet was able to diagnose that it was not an infection, but rather a dislocated jaw. He reset the bone which helped spread good word about his practice throughout the neighborhood. His list of patients grew, and "Ossian was named a medical examiner for Liberty Life Insurance, an appointment that assured him a steady stream of patients he might not have otherwise have acquired.[3]" According to Boyle, Sweet earned the respect of his colleagues at Dunbar Memorial.

Personal life

The Ossian Sweet house at 2905 Garland.

Sweet married Gladys Mitchell in 1922, a girl born in Pittsburgh and raised in Detroit, a few miles north of Garland, and was from a prominent middle class black family. Recognizing a need for further medical training, Sweet left his practice to study in Vienna and Paris. On October 6, 1923, the newly wed couple boarded the S.S. Carmania. Once in Europe, Sweet attended lectures given by Madam Curie, who was a meticulous scientist who first isolated radium as a treatment to reduce cancer. While he did not receive a degree for his 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. According to Kevin Boyle, simple courtesies is what Sweet remembered most during his stay in Paris.[4] For the first time, the Sweets were treated as equals to whites. His only experience with prejudice while in Europe was at the American Hospital in which he donated a relatively large amount of money, 300 francs, given his finances. When seeking to reserve space for his wife to deliver their baby, the American Hospital refused on the grounds that the white Americans in the hospital did not want to be mixed with black patients. On May 29, 1924, Gladys gave birth to Marguerite, who they later called Iva. The thought that the American Hospital had “imperiled the health, and perhaps the life of Gladys and Iva” infuriated him, and reminded Sweet of the world to which he would return. By June 21st, 1924, the Sweets boarded the S.S. Paris and sailed out of Europe back to the states. Once in Detroit, Sweet started to work at Dunbar Hospital, Detroit’s first black hospital. Having saved enough money, he 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. Sweet liked the house not only because of its appearance and size, but also for what the house stood for. Most African Americans lived in Black Bottom, but those who prospered moved to better neighborhoods, which is what Sweet wanted for his own family. Sweet knew the dangers he faced by moving his family into an all-white neighborhood but fear did not stop him from wanting a better life for his family. Also, the Sweet could not back down from buying this home because the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was just then being revived after two years of inactivity in Detroit meaning that there was more of a push against the color line, and not to surrender to it at that particular time. The house on Garland, known as the Ossian H. Sweet House, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Bungalow on Garland Ave.

Upon his return to Detroit in 1924 Ossian started working at Dunbar Hospital, Detroit's first black hospital. After his training in France Ossian was more educated than many white men. A young professional of Ossians status should have had no trouble finding a respectable home in a respectable neighborhood, but unfortunately the Sweet's race played a large role in their house hunting. The Sweet's had a difficult time trying to find a realtor who would represent them and when they finally did they had an even more difficult time finding a family who would sell them their house. According to Kevin Boyle's account of the Sweet's first impression of the Garland house the Sweet's were less than impressed. The area was a "workingman's" area filled with modest houses and two-family flats, but the location was ideal. Close to Ossian's office and Gladys's parents home. The owners of the home saw the Sweets as an opportunity to make more than the bungalow would have sold for to a white family. On June 7, 1925 the Sweet's bought the house for $18,500 which about $6,000 more than what the house should have sold for. The Sweet's moved in on September 8, 1925.

Home invasion

There were recent occurrences to friends and acquaintances of Ossian in regards to buying homes in white neighborhoods and being attacked. There was even a group put together called the Waterworks Park Improvement, which happened to be run by real estate agents from Detroit and nearby cities whose sole reason of gathering was to rile whites against the idea of allowing blacks to ruin their neighborhoods. These people were concerned with the fact that allowing blacks into their neighborhoods would lower their property values. This was a big deal because at this time, buying a home was a very difficult process. The idea of buying land free and clear was no longer an option, forcing people to take out multiple mortgages to buy a home, leading to even more debt. Also, the idea that an African American could afford what most were struggling to keep was insulting to many of the working class whites that lived in that neighborhood. The night of the attack, Ossian had nine other men at his house to serve as assistants should any violence arise. The men included: Charles Washington (insurance man), Leonard Morse (colleague), William Davis, Henry Sweet (Ossian's brother), John Latting (Henry's college friend), Norris Murray (handyman), Otis Sweet (Ossian's brother) and Joe Mack (chauffeur). Gladys, too, was inside the bungalow. Inspector Norton Schuknecht had been placed outside the Sweet's house on the first night and he was to keep the peace and protect Ossian and Gladys from any angry neighbors. When a mob formed for the second night in a row in front of Dr. Sweet’s home, he knew that, “Somewhere out there, standing among the women and children, lounging on the porches, lurking in the alleys were the men who would incite the crowd to violence.[5]” As the mob grew restless, people began to throw stones at the house, which eventually broke an upstairs window. There were several of Dr. Sweet’s friends waiting upstairs, armed with weapons that Sweet had procured prior to moving in. A volley of shots rang out from the upstairs, and in an instant, two members of the white mob were down. One member of the mob, Eric Houghberg, was shot and suffered a minor injury. The other man who was hit was Leon Brenier, who suffered a fatal injury. There was no turning back at this point, a white man lay dead in the street, killed by an African American man. After the shot had been fired from the bungalow, the eleven African Americans inside were brought down to police headquarters and interrogated for five hours. That was just the beginning; interrogation would last for an extended period of time and they would remain in the Wayne County Jail until the entire trial was over. By the next morning, September 10th, the story was on newsstands all across Detroit and throughout the country.

Trial

The Sweets and their friends were tried for murder by the young Judge Frank Murphy. Murphy was considered to be one of the more liberal judges in the city, however with the media working the city into a frenzy, Murphy decided to put aside his liberal ideals and denied the defendant’s appeal to have the case dismissed. There was little hope of receiving a fair trial at this point, but Ossian Sweet and his friends remained hopeful. When word of this incident reached the desk of James Weldon Johnson, the general secretary of the NAACP, he knew right away that this case would be a major force in the acquisition of civil rights for African Americans. With the help of the NAACP, Sweet and his friends would have the money and support that they needed if there was to be any hope of winning this trial. The NAACP helped the Sweets and the rest as much as possible; they had James Weldon Johnson send Walter White to them in order to do some of his legendary investigations. The Sweet trial was one of three main trials the NAACP supported in this year. The NAACP chose carefully which trials would have the most publicity and which trials, if won, would help the African American race and hopefully make steps towards social change.

As September passed on, life in Wayne County Jail became slightly more comfortable for Ossian and the others. It was more difficult for jail officers to keep a close eye on them so the Sweets began seeing a steady stream of visitors, including the elder Henry Sweet, who was Ossian's, Otis's and Henry's father. In early October, Johnson invited Clarence Darrow, who was for a period of time the most brilliant defense attorney in the country, to join the Sweets' defense team. Darrow previously represented the Scopes Trial, and was known to defend the underdog against the great bigotries of the US (big business, religion, racism). Publicity was what Johnson was looking for from Darrow. Darrow accepted and on October 15th it was announced he would be taking control of the defense. Several days prior to the announcement, on October 6th, Gladys was released on bail by her parents' friends. This was a great relief for Ossian. On the morning of Friday, October 30th, Clarence Darrow was ready to go to court. As the end of November rolled in and after the jurors' long deliberations, they came to an agreement that the eight remaining defendants should be acquitted. At this point, Judge Murphy dismissed the jurymen and declared the court case a mistrial. Dr. Sweet and Gladys had expectations to head back to court within a few weeks, but there were delays. During the long delay between the first and second trial, Darrow did not devote much time to the Sweets' case. Eventually, almost three weeks after it was planned, the trial began on Monday, April 19th, 1926. This shorter trial led to an acquittal of Henry Sweet. The prosecuting attorney then elected to dismiss the charges against the remaining defendants.

Aftermath

After Henry was acquitted, life for the Sweets was not as joyous as hoped. Both Gladys and her Daughter, Iva, were suffering from tuberculosis, which Gladys contracted during her incarceration. Two months after Iva turned two, she passed away. The two years following this occurrence, Ossian and Gladys lived apart from one another; he was back at the apartment near Dunbar Memorial and she back in Tucson, trying to recover from her illness. By mid 1928, Ossian finally got possession of the bungalow, which had not been lived in since the shooting. A few months after Gladys returned home, she died, at the age of twenty-seven. After the death of his wife, Ossian bought the Garafalo's Drugstore. In 1929, he left his practice to run a hospital in the heart of the ghetto. He would eventually run a few of these small hospitals but none of them ever flourished. As he began to approach the age of fifty, Ossian started to buy land in East Bartow, where his father had first bought land. Finally, in 1930, he decided to run for the presidency of the NAACP branch in Detroit, only to lose miserably. Unfortunately, in the summer of 1939, Ossian realized that his brother had contracted the horrible disease that took the life of his wife and daughter, tuberculosis. Six months later, he died. By this point, Ossian's finances were not so well and they soon failed him. It took until 1950 to pay off the land contract and he them assumed full ownership of the bungalow. He faced too much debt after that and, instead of losing the house, Ossian sold it in April 1958, to another black family. With the bungalow out of his possession, he transformed what was his office above Garafalo's Drugstore into an apartment. Around this time, Ossian's physical and mental health began to decline; he had put on weight and slowed down in his motions. The man that once displayed maturity and strength now seemed bitter and dark. On March 20th, 1960 his life must have become too overwhelming because that night, he went into his bedroom and shot himself in the head.

Arc of Justice

Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age ISBN 0805079335; ISBN 978-0805079333 was written by Kevin Boyle, a professor of history at Ohio State University. The book tells the story of Ossian Sweet and his battle for equality. Another prominent African American who fought for equality was Ida B. Wells Barnett whose life is referred to as the Crusade for Justice in her autobiography. Justice is something most African Americans were seeking in the roaring 20's as well as long before and after. Barnett also fell victim to white mobs running amuck when she was run out of her home in Memphis after writing an expose on the lynching of her three friends. She was threatened with death if she was ever to return. Like Sweet she was born in the south and traveled across the Atlantic ultimately living her later years and dying in the north.

Malice Aforethought: The Sweet Trials

Malice Aforethought: The Sweet Trials is a play written by Arthur Beer, a Professor and Performing Arts Co-Chair of the University of Detroit Mercy, which tells the story of Ossian Sweet and the murder trial he, his family, and friends faced, commonly known as the Sweet Trials back in 1924. This play serves an important historical role not only in the history of Detroit, where the incident and trials were held, but also in the History of the United States, since it was the first trial where any African American was acquitted of murder. Initially performed in 1987, the play was recently brought back in 2007, for its 20 year anniversary. The play offers a truly unique experience allowing guests to observe and “re-live” a trial of tribulations in which the Sweets and friends faced over 80 years ago. [1]

An interesting fact about the play is that it was inspired by Kevin Boyle’s book, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age and on February 2nd, 2007, he was honored after one of the performances with a testimonial recognition from the city of Detroit in honoring civil rights.[2]

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

• Boyle, Kevin, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age (Henry Holt & Company, New York: 2004). (National Book Award Winner) ISBN 0805079335; ISBN 978-0805079333.
• 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).
• Montefiore, Simon. Speeches That Changed the World: The Stories and Transcripts of the Moments That Made History (Englewood Cliffs: Quercus, 2007.) (Smith-Davies Publishing in Books, 2006), 224 pages - ISBN 1-84724-606-0; ISBN 9781847246066; ISBN 1847240879; ISBN 978847242198; ISBN 184724 2197; ISBN 9781847242198).
• 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) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). ISBN 9780226136493.
• Weinberg, Kenneth G., A Man's Home, A Man's Castle (McCall 1971).

External links

• Ossian Haven Sweet American National Biography.
• '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