Despite racist obstacles and discriminations, the Black residents of Bartow established their own thriving community complete with a school, church, and Black-owned businesses. Sweet’s parents in particular were determined to provide a better life for Ossian and his siblings. When Sweet was 13, his parents sent him to Wilberforce University near Dayton, Ohio, one of the oldest Black colleges in the United States. He was set on eventually studying medicine, and in 1917 was accepted to Howard University’s medical school. There, Sweet joined a generation of Black Americans who became the core of the Black middle class at the turn of the 20th century.