Sweet, Ossian H., House (Additional Documentation)

The Ossian H. Sweet House in Detroit, the home of Detroit black physician and gynecologist, Ossian Sweet (1895-1960), has historical significance as the site of a racial incident, resulting in a nationally publicized 1925 murder trial, at which Sweet was accused of firing into a crowd of angry whites gathered in front of his home at 2905 Garland. Defended by the distinguished attorney Clarence Darrow, Dr. Sweet won acquittal, asserting that a man's home is his castle, and that a citizen has a right to defend his property against mob intervention. Black migration from the South to Detroit exploded during the years 1910 to 1930. A population of 5,841 in 1910 grew to 40,838 by 1920 - a decennial increase of 611.3 per cent. Doubling again to 81,831 by 1925, the figure would rise to 120,066 by 1930. Detroit's lower east side absorbed fully 85% of this crushing migration. Decent housing became the prime goal of thousands of migrating Detroit blacks, seeking to escape the rigidly segregated Negro ghetto bounded by the Detroit River on the south, and the Gratiot Avenue corridor on the north. In the summer of 1925, Dr. Ossian Sweet, an Orlando, Florida native, and a graduate of both Wilberforce University and Howard Medical School, purchased for $18,500 a two-story brick house at Garland and Charlevoix, in a previously all white neighborhood. On July 14, 1925, aroused whites held a mass protest at the Howe School diagonally across from the house at 2905 Garland to confront the imminent black invasion. Later that night in the school yard, the Waterworks Park Improvement Association, whose stated purpose was 'to retain the present high standards of the neighborhood', was born. The Association's understood purpose was to keep the neighborhood white. On September 8, 1925, Dr. Sweet, his wife Gladys and nine associates, each armed with a gun and 400 rounds of ammunition, moved into the Garland house under police escort. The next evening, a large, unruly crowd gathered. Rocks and bottles pelted the house, breaking several windows. At one point the crowd rushed the house, creating panic within. A volley of gunfire issued from an upstairs window. Leon Breiner, sitting on his porch across the street smoking a pipe, was struck by bullets and died instantly. A second bystander, Eric Houghberg, sustained serious wounds. Half an hour later, Detroit police arrested Dr. Sweet and his ten companions and booked them all on an open charge of first degree murder. A fledgling race organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.), asked the controversial Clarence Darrow to undertake Sweet's defense. Darrow, who had spent that previous summer as principal counsel to John T. Scopes of Dayton, Tennessee, agreed to consider the prospect.

The Ossian H. Sweet House in Detroit is a one-and-one-half-story, flank-gable, red brick, Bungaloid-style structure, sited on a full basement. Features include a first-story open porch with extended eaves supported by square brick piers topped by cement caps, and an enclosed south-facing sun porch. The second story has brown stained wooden shingling, and features a simple gable roof with plain eaves sheltering a projecting central, triple-light dormer. The house is enclosed by an unpainted silver aluminum fence. The interior is arranged with a living room, dining room, kitchen, den and sun porch on the first floor; four bedrooms and a bath occupy the second floor. Behind the house, on the western edge of the property line, stands a detached hipped roof, one-story brick garage building. There have been three exterior alterations to the building facade since its 1919 construction: (1) the installation on the first story of a central picture window, (2) the enclosure of the property by an aluminum fence, and (3) the placement of a modern lamp post in 1975. Otherwise, the structure remains unaltered.