One hundred years after a Black doctor was absolved for defending himself against an angry White mob for moving with his family into a Detroit neighborhood, the city has opened a memorial park next to the doctor’s former house to teach visitors about the incident and housing discrimination people of color faced in Detroit in the 1920s.
The city celebrated the opening of the Ossian Sweet Memorial Park at the corner of Garland and Charlevoix on Wednesday. Plaques give visitors information about Sweet and about the organized violence and resistance Black people faced when they migrated north from the southern U.S.
“This is a site that we can be proud of,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “The history isn’t something we’re proud of, but the way we remember where we’ve come from and where we are now is really important.”
Sweet, a Black physician educated at Howard University, moved into the home at 2905 Garland Street in September 1925, an all-White neighborhood in the time before Detroit was a majority Black city. A rock-throwing mob, part of what Duggan said were “neighborhood improvement associations” intent on running out any Black families who dared to move into White neighborhoods, gathered outside the house on Sept. 9.
Shots were fired — two of Sweet’s brothers, his wife, a cousin and several friends were in the home at the time — and a White man on a porch across the street was killed. Another young man was shot in the leg.
Famed attorney Clarence Darrow represented Sweet and the others in the home charged with murder. The trial first ended in a mistrial for the defendants, the all-White jury unable to reach a decision. On retrial, jurors acquitted one of Sweet’s brothers, and the prosecutor decided to drop the rest of the charges.
Sweet’s niece, Jacqueline Spotts, attended Wednesday’s opening, hugging Duggan and other attendees.
Spotts said she actually did not learn about her uncle’s story until she was an adult. It was something of a taboo subject in her family to talk about because someone had been killed. But she said Sweet fought for civil rights whenever he could, and told people to honor his legacy by voting in November’s general election and encouraging others to register to vote.
“I want you all to know that Dr. Sweet fought each and every day that he could for civil rights. He never stopped,” Spotts said.
Along with the plaques that are part of the new neighborhood park, there is a new memorial garden with blooming purple and white flowers bloom.
Duggan said he studied Sweet’s case as a law student. As a prosecutor in Wayne County, he said wanted the office to atone for the “injustice” of having prosecuted the cases of Sweet and the others charged.
Daniel Baxter’s family lived in the house when he was a child. Inspired to learn more about the home’s significance, he recalled telling his mom that he’d one day make sure people knew the home’s history.
“I said, ‘Well, Mama, one day, I’m gonna do something to make sure that everybody in the world knows what happened on the corner of Garland and Charlevoix,'” he said. “… We have the opportunity to be enriched by the history and the legacy and resilience of Dr. Ossian Sweet.”
A historical marker was put up at the home in 2004 after Duggan pushed for it. The house has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985.
Baxter’s family bought the house in 1958, and Baxter, an election administrator for the city of Detroit, still owns it today. He lived in the house from when he was born in 1965 until 1992. Now the CEO of the Ossian H. Sweet Foundation, Baxter has said he plans to reopen the house as a museum. The project has received grants from Wayne County, Amazon and the city of Detroit.
James Lawrence, 73, has memories of visiting his aunt and uncle when they lived in the house — his mother and Baxter’s father are siblings, making the two men cousins. Studying a plaque about housing discrimination faced by Black people, he said he didn’t know about the history of the home until recently.
“Disbelief, pretty much,” Lawrence said of his reaction. “In order for me to believe it, I had to come up and get some more information and make sure that it was true.”
jcardi@detroitnews.com
