No Justice for Sweet
Although Sweet and his family and friends were released from jail and their cases were dismissed, justice was not served. No one from the mob was ever arrested or indicted for attempting to destroy Sweet’s house. And in fact, Sweet and his family would never again live in the house.
Sweet’s wife and brother contracted tuberculosis while they were imprisoned; his daughter eventually caught it, too. All died over the next few years. Sweet died by suicide in 1960.
Today, the Ossian Sweet House is a place of historical significance in the city of Detroit, and is being preserved for future generations. It continues to serve as a reminder that even in the North, Black people could not escape segregation and faced limited access despite their hard efforts to achieve the American Dream.
Dr. Ossian Sweet's House, 2021. Click to enlarge.
African American physician Ossian Sweet and his wife, Gladys, purchased this house in May 1925. When the Sweets moved into their home on September 8, white residents who objected to blacks moving into the neighborhood formed a crowd on the street. The next day hundreds of people converged on the corner of Charlevoix and Garland Streets intent on driving the Sweets from their home. The mob threw rocks and bricks at the house while the Sweets and nine others took refuge inside. In the evening shots rang out and a white man was killed. The police charged the people inside the Sweet house with murder. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hired attorney Clarence Darrow, who argued that people, regardless of their race, have a right to protect their homes.
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