Most extremely in the South, but throughout the United States, directing unprovoked violence against the person and property of black Americans was a rite of passage for white males. When blacks were attacked, they had no legal remedy and resistance would result in imprisonment, physical harm or death.
Many white Americans resented blacks holding property equal to or greater than their own. Consequently, the home, automobiles and livestock of middle-class blacks were often vandalized or destroyed. The refrain “this is too good for a nigger to have” became all too familiar to black Americans. Without the right of self-defense, neither dignity nor wealth could be attained or protected.
The right of self-defense for black Americans began to evolve in 1925 with the bravery of a Detroit physician, Dr. Ossian Sweet, who defended his home against a white mob bent on maintaining residential segregation. His prosecution is a landmark case in American history.
Sweet was born in Orlando, Fla., in 1895. He worked his way through Wilberforce University in Xenia, stoking furnaces and waiting tables, and received a bachelor of science degree in 1920. Sweet took his medical decree at Howard University, after which he relocated to Detroit and joined the medical staff at the Paul Laurence Dunbar Hospital. Dr. Sweet married Gladys Mitchell, a member of Detroit society, and the couple took residence in the home of her parents.
Two years later, a daughter, Iva, was born, and the Sweets thought it time to purchase their own home. They chose a brick bungalow in an all-white neighborhood. They started moving in on Sept. 8, 1925, before scores of angry spectators.
Dr. Sweet felt the hostility surrounding his family, and the following day assembled and armed two of his brothers, Dr. Otis Sweet, a dentist, Henry, a student at Wilberforce, and seven personal friends. As night fell, a heckling, rock-throwing mob of several hundred converged on the house. The black men inside fired a volley into the mob, killing one attacker. The Detroit police arrested and charged every adult in the house with murder, including Gladys.
Although attacks on black homes were a common event, this incident received much publicity because a white man had been killed. It also provided James Weldon Johnson, the secretary of the NAACP, the educated and articulate victims who could illustrate the terror of racial violence for fair-minded white Americans. He was able to recruit the most famous defense lawyer in America, Clarence Darrow, who just weeks earlier had been on the world stage, defending a Tennessee science teacher in the celebrated “Scopes-Monkey Trial.”
As a boy in Kinsman, Ohio, Darrow had been present while his father entertained Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, and other abolitionists in their home. He grew up with a disdain for bigotry and intolerance.
The case was assigned to Judge Frank Murphy, a product of the Detroit Democratic political machine. The first trial ended in a hung jury. In the retrial, Darrow made mincemeat of the 40 prosecution witnesses who were well-coached to testify that there were only 15 people milling around near the Sweet house, giving them no reason to fear imminent danger.
Darrow introduced a surprise witness that undermined the prosecution. A German cleaning lady, Theresa Hinties, testified that she was walking her dog and a mob of about 300 made the street near the Sweet bungalow impassable. On May 13, 1926, the all-white jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The nation was shocked.
Darrow retired soon after the Sweet case. Judge Murphy, who set a high standard for fairness in a racially charged case, had a distinguished career on the bench and in Michigan politics. In 1940, he was appointed to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Tragedy awaited Dr. Sweet after he was freed. Gladys had contracted tuberculosis while incarcerated and passed it to 2-year-old Iva. Within two years, both were dead. Dr. Sweet continued to practice medicine, but suffered severe depression. On March 2, 1960, Dr. Sweet used a gun for the last time, to take his own life.
The case of Dr. Ossian Sweet did not suddenly establish the right of self-defense for black Americans, and the case only angered Southern whites. If Mose Wright could have defended his Mississippi family house in 1955, his nephew, Emmitt Till, would not have been lynched. But for the first time, a black man’s right to defend his home was recognized in a court of law. The Sweet case gave black America a hope for future justice, and a new faith in the American judicial system.
Darnell Carter is a former Clark County assistant prosecutor with an interest in local history.