Detroit — A crowd gathered at the corner of Garland and Charlevoix streets Sunday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the historic nights when a White mob gathered outside the home of Dr. Ossian Sweet, a Black doctor who moved his family into the then-White neighborhood 100 years ago, and the landmark court case that followed.
The Oh Sweet Foundation hosted the open house and block party Sunday with food trucks, vendors, performers as part of a three-day series of events at the home where Sweet, his friends and family protected themselves against the crowd. Someone from within the home shot into the crowd, killing someone. Everyone inside was arrested and charged with murder, but eventually were acquitted of murder charges. Their acquittal affirmed they and other Black people had the right to protect themselves and their property.
The foundation also is hosting free events Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, historian Kevin Boyl will discuss his book “Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age” with Daniel Baxter, founder of the Oh Sweet Foundation and owner of the Sweet home.On Tuesday, there will be a performance of “100 Years of Courage,” a production about the Sweet family story. Information is available at ohsweetfoundation.org.
The home is an important monument to Detroit’s history and a reminder of the struggle faced by Black Detroiters who were not allowed to live where they wanted because of the color of their skin, said Deborah Folson, a member of the Detroit Historical Society’s Black Historic Sites Committee.
Folson attended Sunday’s block party to recognize the history that unfolded at the site 100 years ago. She said it’s important for people to understand the history of their community and to teach their kids about it as well, because “our past informs our future.”
“I’m really just glad they are preserving it,” Folson said of the Sweet home.
The home is owned by Baxter, who grew up there and whose family bought the home in the 1950s. Baxter is turning the home into a museum scheduled to open next year after the Wayne County Board of Commissioners approved a $226,952 for renovations last year.
“It’s about remembering what has happened over the years,” Baxter said of his work to preserve the home and share Sweet’s story. “When we remember, it keeps us sober, that we might not commit the same crimes and mistakes of the past.”
The nephews of Dr. Ossian Sweet – William Sweet Jr., and Dwaine Sweet, both of Jacksonville, Florida – attended the block party Sunday. They said they are grateful to Baxter and the Oh Sweet Foundation for preserving the Sweet home and ensuring people remember their family’s story.
“We’re proud to be here,” said William Sweet. “It’s a memorialization and it’s a tragedy that we’re here, but unfortunately it happened, you can’t change history.”
“We would not have missed this for the world,” Dwaine Sweet said.
Sweet and his family moved to the house on Garland Street in September 1925. Sweet asked friends and family to stay the night there and gathered guns and ammunition because he feared his neighbors would be hostile, according to an account from the Detroit Historical Society.
A mob collected outside the house and grew to a crowd of several hundred, the historical society said. Some people threw rocks and bottles. Someone inside the house later fired a gun into the crowd, killing one man and injuring another.
Everyone in the home was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, the historical society said. They were represented by the NAACP, who enlisted the aid of famed attorney Clarence Darrow to help defend the Sweets at the trial and secure acquittals, according to the State Bar’s Michigan Legal Milestones web page.
Attorneys relied on the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people and provides all citizens with equal protection under the law, and the castile doctrine principle that states people are allowed to protect their homes using deadly force, the Oh Sweet Society said in its account of the trial.
Winning the case formed America to stand true to its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to every person, Baxter said.
ckthompson@detroitnews.com
