"Ossian Sweet"(October 30,1895-March 20,1960)

Was an American physician.He is most notable for his self defense in 1925 of his newly-purchased home in a predominantly white neighborhood against a mob attempting to force him out of the neighborhood in Detroit,Michigan,and the

subsequent acquittal by an all-white jury of murder charges against him,his family,and friends who helped defend his home,in what came to be known as the Sweet Trials.He was born the second son to Henry Sweet and Dora Devaughn in Bartow,Florida just eight days before the death of his oldest brother,Oscar.Henry Sweet was a former slave from Florida and was able to buy land in 1898,where he moved his entire family.There they lived in a small farmhouse His 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,Ossian witnessed the lynching of Fred Rochelle who lived a few blocks away from the Sweets.Fred had been accused of raping a white girl and was set afire and murdered.He watched traumatized from the bushes as the flames engulfed Fred's body.He'd recount it with frightening specificity: The smell of kerosene, Fred screams as he engulfed in flames,the crowd's picking off pieces of flesh to take home as souvenirs."This memory would haunt Ossian throughout his life,especially in his later years.In September 1909,he left Florida at age 13.His parents had taught him everything they could, instilling in him religious traditions they had sustained the family through generations of struggle.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 of the Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and was where he earned a Bachelor of Science at the age of 25.He would attend Wilberforce for eight years;the first four which were spent in prep-school studying Latin,history,mathematics,English,music,drawing,philosophy,social and introductory science and foreign language (probably French).He took work shoveling snow,stoking furnaces,washing dirty dishes, waiting tables,and carting luggage up hotel stairs to pay US$118 for his tuition and books.From Wilberforce University,He attended Howard University in Washington D.C. where he earned his medical accreditation.Throughout his early life he demonstrated a very clear dedication to school and overcoming the life of a Southern black.Ossian parents were one of many families to suffer the tough goodbyes of sending young children away to be educated,but the hope he would be presented with opportunities not available in the South as well as the possibility of his escaping the horrible things he had witnessed in Bartow,led his parents to this decision.Ossian 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 Howard,was his growing knowledge and goal to be recognized as part of the Talented Tenth.He 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 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 World War 1.Boredom eventually hit;and when it did,a riot broke that lasted five days and left 6 dead and 150 wounded. Ossian was just four blocks from the riots 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.Ossian was "walking down the street when a gang descended on a  passing streetcar,pulled a black passenger down to the sidewalk, and beat him mercilessly."Kevin later states that Ossian did not venture from his house because he was escaping the memories of his past, a true emotion for Ossian,and one that would not leave him until his death.With little money,he arrived in Detroit in the late summer of 1921,a time of speakeasies,Jazz Music,liquor,and slumming.It was also a time when drugs,gambling,prostitution swept the city.In 1910 Detroit was on its way to become a 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 approximately 485,000;by 1920 it had more than doubled.As migration increased,so did segregation.Even with his extensive medical knowledge,Ossian 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 made their homes during the Great Migration.These proto ghettos were extremely poor areas,being unsanitary with few sources of water,not to mention that they were mainly built in places that were environmentally unhealthy.Overpopulation and the steady influx of migrants,who lacked medical care amid cramped quarters,caused diseases and created imminent threats to life."Rudimentary care could have saved some of them.But Black Bottom didn't get that."He saw this as an opportunity to practice his medicine.He gave US$100 to a pharmacy,"Palace Drugs,"in exchange for office space.His first client,Elizabeth Riley,feared she had contracted tetanus because her jaw grew stiff.He was able to diagnose that it was not an infection,but rather simply a dislocated jaw.He reset the bone which spread good publicity about his practice throughout the neighborhood.His list of patients grew,and "Ossian was named medical examiner for Liberty Life Insurance,and appointment that assured him a steady stream of patients he might not have otherwise have acquired."He earned the respect of his colleagues at Dunbar Memorial.He married Gladys Mitchell in 1922. She was born in Pittsburgh and had been raised in Detroit,a few miles north of Garland,and came from a prominent middle class black family.Recognizing a need for further medical training,He left his practice to study in Vienna and Paris in 1923.Although he did not receive a degree,Ossian furthered his education by attending lectures given by noted physicians and scientist, including Madame Curie.In non-segregated Paris,he and his wife were also treated as equals to Whites.His only experience with prejudice while in Europe was at the American Hospital in which he donated relatively large amount of money.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 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 through that the American Hospital had "imperiled the health,and perhaps the life of Gladys and Iva"infuriated him,and reminded him of the world to which he would return.By June 21,1924,the Sweets returned to Detroit and Ossian began working at Dunbar Hospital,Detroit's first black hospital.Having saved enough money,he moved his family in 1925 from his Gladys parents home in an all-white neighborhood,to Garland Street,another all-white neighborhood at Garland and Charlevoix.He was aware of the neighborhood's prejudice and of the probable danger he would encounter in purchasing the house,but like it or not because of its appearance and size,but what the house represented.Most African-Americans lived in Black Bottom,but those who prospered moved to better neighborhoods,which is what he wanted for his own family.Also he felt he could not back down from buying the home because the NAACP had just been revived after two years of inactivity in Detroit.This meant that there was more of a push against the color line,to not surrender to it at that particular time.The Ossian H.Sweet house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.A young professional of Ossian's status should have no trouble finding a home in a respectable neighborhood,but unfortunately the sweets" race played a large role in their house hunting.The Sweets 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 a house.According to Kevin Boyle account of the Sweets'first impression of the Garland house,the Sweets were less than impressed.The area was a "workingman's area filled with modest houses and two-family flats,but the location was ideal.I was close to his office and to Gladys parents house.The owners of the home saw the Sweets as an opportunity to make more than the bungalow would have if sold to a white family.On June 7,1925,the Sweets bought the house for $18,500 about $6,000 more than the house's fair market value.The Sweets moved in the house on September 8, 1925.There were dangerous occurrence's happening to friends and acquaintances of Ossian in buying homes in white neighborhoods and then 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 existence was to create controversy against the idea of allowing black to move to white neighborhoods.These people were concerned with the belief  that allowing blacks into their neighborhoods would lover property values this was important because at this time,buying a home was a very difficult and lengthy process.This idea of buying land free and clear was no longer an option for most blacks,forcing them instead to take out multiple mortgages to buy a home, leading to even more debt.Fearing an attack,Ossian had nine other men at his house on the night of the attack to help defend his family and property should any violence arise.The men included:Charles Washington (insurance man),Leonard Morse (colleague),William Davis, Henry Sweet (brother),John Latting (Henry"s college friend),Norris Murray (handyman),Otis Sweet (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 the Sweets' 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."As the crowd grew restless,people began to throw stones at the house,which eventually broke and upstairs window.Several of Dr.Sweet's friends were waiting upstairs,armed with weapons that he had purchased prior to moving in.Shots were fired from upstairs,hitting two of the attackers.One member of the mob,Eric Houghberg,suffered a minor injury.The other man, Leon Breiner,was killed.The eleven African-Americans inside were later brought to police headquarters and interrogated for five hours.Interrogations would last for an extended period of time and the men would remain in the Wayne County Jail until the trial was over.The Sweets and their friends were tired for murder by judge Frank Murphy.Judge Murphy was considered to be one of the more liberal judges in the city,but the media working the city into a frenzy,the Judge denied the defendant's appeal to have the case dismissed.However,Ossian and his friends remained hopeful.When word reach the desk of James Weldon Johnson,general secretary of the NAACP.James knew that this case would be a major force in the acquisition of civil rights for African-Americans.With the help of the NAACP,Ossian and his friends gained 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 much as possible;they had James Weldon Johnson send Walter White to them in order to do some of his legendary investigations work.The Sweet trial was one of three main trials the NAACP  supported in this year.The NAACP  chose carefully which trials have the most publicity and which trials,if won,would help the African-American race and hopefully make steps towards social change.Funds were limited,and the selection of civil rights battles had to be chosen carefully to maximize the limited funds that were available.As September's 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 seeing a steady stream of vistors,including the elder Henry Sweet,who was Ossian's Otis's and Henry's father.In early October,James invited Clarence Darrow,who was for a period of time the most brilliant defense attorney in the country,to join Ossian defense team.Clarence previously had been an attorney in the Scopes Trial.Publicity was what James was looking from Clarence.Clarence accepted and on October 15 it was announced he would be taking control of the defense.Several days prior to the announcement,on October 6,Gladys was released on bail by her parents' friends.This was a great relief for Ossian.On the morning of Friday October 30,Clarence was ready for trial.As the end of November rolled in,and after the jurors'long deliberations,most came to an agreement that the eight remaining defendants should be acquitted;there were however,a few holdouts.At this point,Judge Murphy dismissed the deadlocked jury and declared the court case a mistrial.Dr. Sweet and Gladys had expectation to head back to court within a few weeks,but there were delays.During the long delay between the first and second trial,Clarence did nor devote much time to the Sweet's case.Eventually,almost three weeks after it was planned,the trial began on Monday,April 19,1926.This shorter trial led to an acquittal of Henry Sweet.The prosecuting attorney then elected to dismiss the charges against the remaining defendants.After he was acquitted life for the sweets was not as joyous as hoped.Both Gladys and their daughter were suffering from tuberculosis,which Gladys contracted during her incarceration.Two months after her second birthday Iva, died.During the two years following the loss of daughter Ossian and Gladys lived apart;he was back at the apartment near Dunbar Memorial and she went to Tucson Arizona,in order to benefit from the drier climate.By mid-1928 he finally regained possession of the bunglow,which had not been lived in since the shooting.A few months after Gladys returned home,she died at age twenty-seven.After the death of his wife,he brought 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 one ever floursed.As he began to apporach the age of fifty,Ossian started to buy land in East Bartow,as his father had.Finally in 1930,he decided to run for presidency of the NAACP branch in Detriot,only to loose by a wide margin.In the summer of 1939,Ossian realized that one of his brothers also contracted tuberculosis;six months later,he died.By this point,Ossian finances soon failed him.It took him until 1950 to pay off the land and contract and he then assumed full ownership of the bungalow.He faced much debt after that and,instead of losing the house,he sold it in April 1958,to another black family.With the bungalow out of his possession,he transformed what had been his office above Garafalo"s Drugstore into an apartment.Around this time,Ossian physical and mental began to decline;he had put on weight and had slowed in his motions.On March 20,1960,he want into his office and commited suiide with a shot to the head.