Ossian Sweet (pronounced /ˈɒʃən ˈswiːt/, us dict: ŏsh′·ən 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 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.
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 World War I. 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 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. Sweet 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.” 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.
Home invasion
There were dangerous occurrences 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 blacks to move to white neighborhoods. These people were concerned with the belief that allowing blacks into their neighborhoods would lower property values. This was important because at this time, buying a home was a very difficult and lengthy process. The 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. 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 the neighborhood.
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 (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.” 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 purchased prior to moving in. A volley of shots rang out from the upstairs, and in an instant, two attackers were down. One member of the mob, Eric Houghberg, was shot and suffered a minor injury. The other man who was hit, Leon Breiner, was killed from the shot. There was no turning back at this point, as 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 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 entire trial was over. By the next morning, September 10, the story was on newsstands all across Detroit and throughout the country.
The Sweets and their friends were tried for murder by a young Judge, Frank Murphy. Judge Murphy was considered to be one of the more liberal judges in the city, but 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, general secretary of the NAACP, Johnson 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 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 as 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 would 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 passed on, life in the 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 had been an attorney in the Scopes Trial. Publicity was what Johnson was looking for from Darrow. Darrow 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 Darrow 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 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 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 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's second birthday, she died. During the two years following the loss of their 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, Ossian finally regained 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 ever flourished. As he began to approach the age of fifty, Ossian started to buy land in East Bartow, as his father had. Finally, in 1930, he decided to run for the presidency of the NAACP branch in Detroit, only to lose by a wide margin. In the summer of 1939, Ossian realized that his brother had also contracted tuberculosis; six months later, he died. By this point, Ossian's finances soon failed him. It took him until 1950 to pay off the land contract and he then 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 had been 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 had slowed in his motions. On March 20, 1960, he went into his bedroom and committed suicide with a shot to the head.
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The "Johnny Bright Incident" was a violent on-field assault against African-American player Johnny Bright by White American player Wilbanks Smith during an American college football game held on October 20, 1951 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The game was significant in itself as it marked the first time that an African American athlete with a national profile and of critical importance to the success of his Drake University team had played against Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) on their home field. Bright's injury also highlighted the racial tensions of the times and assumed notoriety when it was captured in what was later to become both a widely disseminated and eventually Pulitzer Prize winning photo sequence. The event later came to be known as the "Johnny Bright Incident".
Johnny Bright's participation as a halfback/quarterback in the collegiate football game between the Drake Bulldogs and Oklahoma A&M Aggies on October 20, 1951 at Lewis Field was controversial even before it began. Bright had been the first African-American football player to play at Lewis Field two years prior (without incident). In 1951, Bright was a pre-season Heisman Trophy candidate from Drake, and led the nation in total offense.[1] Bright had never played for a losing team in his college career. Coming into the contest, Drake carried a five game winning streak, owing much to Bright's rushing and passing abilities. During the first seven minutes of the game, Bright was knocked unconscious three times by blows from Oklahoma A&M defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith. While Smith's final elbow blow broke Bright's jaw, he was still able to complete a 61-yard touchdown pass to Drake halfback Jim Pilkington a few plays later.[1] Soon afterward, the injury finally forced him to leave the game. Bright finished the game with less than 100 yards, the first time in his three year collegiate career at Drake. Oklahoma A&M eventually won the game 27–14.[1]
Bob Spiegel, a reporter with the Des Moines Register, interviewed several spectators after the game, eventually publishing a report on the incident in the October 30, 1951 issue of the newspaper. According to Spiegel's report, several of the Oklahoma A&M students he interviewed overheard an Oklahoma A&M coach repeatedly say "Get that nigger" whenever the A&M practice squad ran Drake plays against the Oklahoma A&M starting defense, prior to the October 20 game.[2] Spiegel also recounted the experiences of a businessman and his wife, who were seated behind a group of Oklahoma A&M practice squad players. At the beginning of the game, one of the players turned around said, "We're gonna get that nigger."[2] After the first blow to Bright was delivered by Smith, the same player again turned around and told the businessman, "See that knot on my jaw? That same guy [Smith] gave me that the very same way in practice."[2]
Drake University and fellow Missouri Valley Conference member Bradley University withdrew from the Conference in protest for several years, not only in response to the Bright incident, but also because both Oklahoma A&M and the Conference refused to take any disciplinary action against Wilbanks Smith.[4] The "Johnny Bright Incident", as it became widely known, eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules regarding illegal blocking, and mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards.[2]
Recalling the incident without apparent bitterness in a 1980 Des Moines Register interview three years before his death, Bright commented: "There's no way it couldn't have been racially motivated." Bright went on to add: "What I like about the whole deal now, and what I'm smug enough to say, is that getting a broken jaw has somehow made college athletics better. It made the NCAA take a hard look and clean up some things that were bad."[2]
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Dick Rowland (born c. 1902) was an African-American teen-age shoeshiner whose false arrest in May 1921 was the impetus for the Tulsa Race Riot. When he was arrested for attempted assault, Rowland was 19 years old. The white teen-ager, who was supposed to have been the victim, declined to prosecute. The arrest was prompted after Rowland tripped in an elevator on his way to a segregated bathroom, and a white store clerk misconstrued the incident as an "assault."
Rowland's birth name was Jimmie Jones. [1] It is not known where he was born, but by 1908 he and two sisters were orphans living in Vinita, Oklahoma. Jones was informally adopted by Damie Ford, an African-American woman. In approximately 1909 Ford and Jones moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to join Ford's family, the Rowlands. Eventually, Jones took Rowland as his last name, and selected his favorite first name, Dick, as his own. Rowland attended the city's segregated schools, including Booker T. Washington High School.[2]
He dropped out of high school to take a job shining shoes in a white-owned and white-patronized shine parlor on Main Street in downtown Tulsa. As Tulsa was a segregated city where Jim Crow practices were in effect, black people were not allowed to use toilet facilities used by white people. There was no separate facility for blacks at the shine parlor where Rowland worked and the owner had arranged for Black employees to use a segregated "Colored" restroom on the top floor of the nearby Drexel Building at 319 S. Main Street.
On May 30, 1921, Rowland attempted to enter the Drexel building elevator and, although the exact facts are either unknown or in dispute, according to the most accepted accounts, he tripped, and while falling, latched on to the arm of the elevator operator, Sarah Page, then 17 years old. Startled, the elevator operator screamed and a white clerk in a first floor store called police to report seeing Rowland flee from the elevator and the building. The white clerk on the first floor reported the incident as an attempted assault.
Rowlands was arrested the following day, on May 31, 1921. Subsequent actions by white citizens in an apparent attempt to lynch him, and by black citizens to protect him, sparked a riot that lasted 16 hours and caused the destruction by fire of 35 city blocks and 1,256 residences in Tulsa's prosperous African-American neighborhood of Greenwood, and over 800 injuries and the deaths of at about 300 blacks and 13 whites.[3]
The case against Dick Rowland was dismissed at the end of September, 1921. The dismissal followed the receipt of a letter by the County Attorney from Sarah Page in which she stated that she did not wish to prosecute the case.
According to Damie Ford, once Rowland was exonerated he immediately left Tulsa, and went to Kansas City.[4] Little else is publicly known about the remainder of Rowland's life.Dick Rowland (born c. 1902) was an African-American teen-age shoeshiner whose false arrest in May 1921 was the impetus for the Tulsa Race Riot. When he was arrested for attempted assault, Rowland was 19 years old. The white teen-ager, who was supposed to have been the victim, declined to prosecute. The arrest was prompted after Rowland tripped in an elevator on his way to a segregated bathroom, and a white store clerk misconstrued the incident as an "assault."
Rowland's birth name was Jimmie Jones. [1] It is not known where he was born, but by 1908 he and two sisters were orphans living in Vinita, Oklahoma. Jones was informally adopted by Damie Ford, an African-American woman. In approximately 1909 Ford and Jones moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to join Ford's family, the Rowlands. Eventually, Jones took Rowland as his last name, and selected his favorite first name, Dick, as his own. Rowland attended the city's segregated schools, including Booker T. Washington High School.[2]
He dropped out of high school to take a job shining shoes in a white-owned and white-patronized shine parlor on Main Street in downtown Tulsa. As Tulsa was a segregated city where Jim Crow practices were in effect, black people were not allowed to use toilet facilities used by white people. There was no separate facility for blacks at the shine parlor where Rowland worked and the owner had arranged for Black employees to use a segregated "Colored" restroom on the top floor of the nearby Drexel Building at 319 S. Main Street.
On May 30, 1921, Rowland attempted to enter the Drexel building elevator and, although the exact facts are either unknown or in dispute, according to the most accepted accounts, he tripped, and while falling, latched on to the arm of the elevator operator, Sarah Page, then 17 years old. Startled, the elevator operator screamed and a white clerk in a first floor store called police to report seeing Rowland flee from the elevator and the building. The white clerk on the first floor reported the incident as an attempted assault.
Rowlands was arrested the following day, on May 31, 1921. Subsequent actions by white citizens in an apparent attempt to lynch him, and by black citizens to protect him, sparked a riot that lasted 16 hours and caused the destruction by fire of 35 city blocks and 1,256 residences in Tulsa's prosperous African-American neighborhood of Greenwood, and over 800 injuries and the deaths of at about 300 blacks and 13 whites.[3]
The case against Dick Rowland was dismissed at the end of September, 1921. The dismissal followed the receipt of a letter by the County Attorney from Sarah Page in which she stated that she did not wish to prosecute the case.
According to Damie Ford, once Rowland was exonerated he immediately left Tulsa, and went to Kansas City.[4] Little else is publicly known about the remainder of Rowland's life.
(to be continued...)
